FTA: For now, at least, the car only drives routes it's been trained to drive. My ride in Washington DC was along a route that Google engineers had driven with the car earlier. Google refused to allow the car to be driven anywhere beyond this well-studied environment, at least not with the media tagging along.
Reporter, did you even ask the Google engineers about that? For a media demo, it is not at all surprising that they would use an already driven route. The reporting here was a bit disappointing.
Reporter, did you even ask the Google engineers about that? For a media demo, it is not at all surprising that they would use an already driven route. The reporting here was a bit disappointing.
Actually, no, this limitation has been well documented (but cleverly brushed aside). The car doesn't see and understand the road ahead, it follows an invisible line on the ground, and can stop if it detects danger. It doesn't read signs.
So yes, demos are impressive, but slightly misleading.
I'm pretty sure there's no "invisible line on the ground". From what I've read, the route simply needs to be mapped at a higher resolution than most roads have been mapped before.
> That step still seems -- to me -- many years off
Than you, KTVZ reporter. I will take your expert opinion into account.