New Waymo Jaguars unveiled, with fifth-gen hardware
3/05/2020Waymo has just announced a new fifth-generation of its autonomous vehicles, and while some of the details are not new (like Waymo using all-electric Jaguar I-Pace SUVs, announced two years ago), there is a lot of fresh detail.
In a blog post, Waymo runs through:
- The new and updated Lidar, vision, and Radar systems used on the new Jaguars, which will number as many as 20,000
- And details features like the system being able to spot a car door opening a city block away, "peek" around blind spots, and more.
- It doesn't give too much away, but touches on the main new points of competence.
Wired peels back what’s new on the hardware, noting:
- “A closer look reveals a bigger shift offering hints about the future of autonomous vehicles. The two rooftop lidars […] have been compressed into one unit that can handle both medium- and long-range sensing.
- The perimeter lidars near the wheels have been joined by “perimeter cameras.” A lidar and camera sit on the grille, where you’d normally see Jaguar’s roaring cat logo.”
- The work was done in-house by Waymo, with advantages like the sensors can now collect useful data from more than 500 meters out, and can see through (and survive) in nasty weather.
- “We wanted this generation to be much more scalable and manufacturable and reduce the costs of the system by half,” Satish Jeyachandran, Waymo’s hardware lead, told Wired.
- “I'm super confident that we are pretty close to achieving all of these metrics.”
What it all means:
- There’s been a string of Waymo news recently, including the fresh cash injection that’s gone into the company.
- Yet autonomous driving is still nowhere near fruition in daily lives. Yes, normal highway driving looks close to solved, but anyone who’s driven Tesla Autopilot will note it can’t do everything.
- Waymo is taking the cautious approach, with Lidar, while Tesla (read: Elon Musk) is betting self-driving cars need only cameras, basic radar, and ultrasonics plus computing power and machine-learning to perform as well as or better than a human.
Round Up:
🧱 Scientists create bendable concrete that could better withstand earthquakes (Engadget).
🦇 Throwback Thursday
Oh sure, Waymo has a new car. But look, a new Batmobile!
- Batman has a new ride for Gotham’s mean streets. And wow, it isn't much like the sleek, overt tanks of other movies, but something like a futuristic muscle car or hot rod. It’s a little more subtle, sort of?
- Director Matt Reeves shared the images on Twitter and it adds to the feeling of the new Batman film that it’s going to be quite different.
- As one comment said, it’s got a combination of “normal people couldn’t have this” and “thrown together as a prototype” that ‘The Batman’ is feeling.
- Does it drive autonomously, though?
- 'The Batman' is set for a June 2021 movie release.
Safe driving,