Waymo admits that its autopilot is often just guys from the Philippines
- Thread starter Daniel Sims
- Start date
Not sure if the article is misleading or the commenters are missing the point. To be clear, this is the actual issue.
Having a "backup" driver help "guide" the car in uncertain situations seems like a smart thing. They don't remote control drive the car, that is not at all what is going on. The issue that is creating the political noise is that the people are remotely located in another country, not the US, not the city it is driving. This is more related to things like DJI and TickToc than Amazon's "Just Walk Out" or other fake automation.
Having a "backup" driver help "guide" the car in uncertain situations seems like a smart thing. They don't remote control drive the car, that is not at all what is going on. The issue that is creating the political noise is that the people are remotely located in another country, not the US, not the city it is driving. This is more related to things like DJI and TickToc than Amazon's "Just Walk Out" or other fake automation.
But it sure would be nice if the operator taking temporary control of the vehicle had a US driver's license.
They don't drive the vehicle remotely, they only send it commands.
Neatfeatguy
Posts: 2,291 +4,613
So, you have a car being driven by someone that is roughly 8600 miles away from CA....even with good high speed internet and good human reaction time you're going to have 1-2 seconds of delay (at best). A lot can happen within 1-2 seconds when driving.
This seems like a bad situation to be in; having an autonomous car that cannot fully operate without human intervention from almost halfway around the world and then having human pilots with upwards of a couple of seconds of delay......
Sure, yeah. What could possibly go wrong?
This seems like a bad situation to be in; having an autonomous car that cannot fully operate without human intervention from almost halfway around the world and then having human pilots with upwards of a couple of seconds of delay......
Sure, yeah. What could possibly go wrong?
Che Cazzo
Posts: 191 +322
Funny thing, I could have sworn I have read dozens of articles how AI will replace 10000000000000s of jobs in the US.
Turns out, only reasonably / good paying jobs in the US (and other "expensive" lands) will be replaced. Our amazing AI and their tech bros overlords still depend (a lot!!) on slave / very cheap labor in 3rd world countries to function...
How totally unexpected!!!
/s (just in case)
Turns out, only reasonably / good paying jobs in the US (and other "expensive" lands) will be replaced. Our amazing AI and their tech bros overlords still depend (a lot!!) on slave / very cheap labor in 3rd world countries to function...
How totally unexpected!!!
/s (just in case)
This technology is a nefarious STATE actor's dream. Say you have a person of interest (I,e dignitary, top scientist, prior military person) and you want to eliminate them. You track them into one of these robo-taxis. You take control of the vehicle after they are picked up and guide it on to the nearest railroad track or some other hazardous situation and you have a perfect cover or "plausible deniability" for your operation. As others have stated, why not simply disclose the fact this is occurring versus all of the smoke and mirrors?
Axeia
Posts: 1,048 +1,445
Owning things? Absurd.
On a more serious note. I have always thought that car ownership is highly ineffective. For most people their second biggest purchase they will ever make (and more often than a house) for a machine that sits idle 90 percent of the time. Which (in the US) has more space dedicated to this idling (parking lots) then is dedicated to housing.
An automated taxi service if it worked well and costs were reasonable would be the perfect solution to many problems.
Sadly asking companies like Waymo (Google) to keep prices reasonable in the long term is about as useful as talking to a wall. Green line must go up, indefinitely.
Safety is not the company's primary concern with backups an ocean away who have never even driven in the assigned city. Sounds a lot like exploitation coupled with "break things move fast", and if someone is predictably maimed or killed in the process, it's an acceptable loss. People who use these services or who live in the cities where these services are deployed are uninformed of the risk profiles. If they knew the reality and had a chance to vote whether to allow it or utilize it, I'd be fine with that. It's the "ask for forgiveness part" I have a real problem with because the most vulnerable people are usually the ones who suffer while the billionaires face few or no consequences.
But why admit the system if fallible and that the solution to a AI-powered robotic driver is ... a human? Would you pay the premium?
m4a4
Posts: 4,441 +6,659
As a techy, it would help a lot. Because I understand that the tech is too new to pretend it doesn't have flaws.
And it's not like these "autopilot" systems haven't had big warnings/disclaimers along with using them for a while now. The main one for consumer vehicles usually being to hold the wheel and pay attention "just in case".
So they have 4 (or however many) autopilot cars to one remote guy, on the theory that it is VERY unlikely that more than one might need remote intervention at the same time. Somewhat like the fact that if everybody tried to use cell phones at the same time, many people would not get a dial tone.
Just wait until a big event occurs, such as an invasion by Martians or Kanamits, especially gourmet Kanamits. When the truth is told, "It's a cookbook!" your robotaxi will still be headed to the flying saucer, & you will be on the menu!
Just wait until a big event occurs, such as an invasion by Martians or Kanamits, especially gourmet Kanamits. When the truth is told, "It's a cookbook!" your robotaxi will still be headed to the flying saucer, & you will be on the menu!
Au Contraire
Posts: 67 +65
Pray tell . . . how many individuals do they have monitoring how many vehicles at the same time? What happens when that individual is overwhelmed by more than one request / situation / emergency at the same time?
The justification for AI is not safety, no matter how many times they tell us it is. The true reason is to save money and increase profits. And CONTROL. Thus, removing manual backup systems (inside door handles, anyone?) is the next step. What happens when your AI parachute release fails, and the pull cord has been cut by the bean counters?
The justification for AI is not safety, no matter how many times they tell us it is. The true reason is to save money and increase profits. And CONTROL. Thus, removing manual backup systems (inside door handles, anyone?) is the next step. What happens when your AI parachute release fails, and the pull cord has been cut by the bean counters?
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They'll be able to drive it remotely too.
The cars pile up in the middle of the road until the individuals can clear the backlog.
WaphleStomp
Posts: 171 +107
So, Waymo's computer brain is just a hamster running on a wheel. Good to know.
As a techie, would you buy any of these cars? Wouldn't you just wait it out until it's out of Alpha? I think they want to keep up appearances so their valuation continues to inflate, but that's just me.
Did you even bother to read the post directly above yours?
JohnGoogle
Posts: 14 +4
Just wait until the x1 robots go live and mainstream. They are made to have the ability to have a worker be able to control via vr to do chores around your house. Job openings are live now on their site if you would like to be a robot butler.
JohnGoogle
Posts: 14 +4
So the Taliban can upload videos from a cave in the middle east, some guy can make 5 bucks a week giving inputs to a car in a different continent, but my phone takes several minutes to send a message to someone in the same building as me?
(for all the redditors that are going to say "well acshullllyyy." this is sarcasm)
(for all the redditors that are going to say "well acshullllyyy." this is sarcasm)
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