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While a number of companies are testing cars in California and Arizona, New York has generally not been used as a testing site. New York is home to busy streets, challenging driving dynamics – aggressive drivers coupled with equally rule-averse pedestrians and cyclists – and highly variable weather. Also, the state has a law that specifically requires drivers to keep at least one hand on the wheel at all times.
But Mobileye has been granted a special permit to allow the “safety drivers” in his vehicles to keep their hands completely off the wheel. The test cars can also drive without a police escort, something generally required for hands-free driving in the city.
Mobileye’s self-driving Ford Fusion sedans have been driving for six weeks in New York City’s densest borough, Manhattan. But the company didn’t officially announce the tests until Tuesday.
For now, Mobileye is testing two cars in New York. The fleet will increase to seven in the coming months, the company said. Mobileye generally does not have large fleets of test vehicles.
Cities are considered the most challenging environments for computer-controlled vehicles. As cars move down city streets at relatively slow speeds — the standard speed limit in New York City is 25 miles per hour — they have to deal with a variety of obstacles coming from all directions. In addition to double-parked trucks, construction and jaywalking pedestrians, New York City also has horse-drawn carriages, three-wheeled pedal booths, and policemen standing in the middle of the streett give directions with hand gestures.
“People are very, I won’t say aggressive, I say assertive,” Shashua said of New Yorkers.
When dealing with other road users, including pedestrians, Mobileye’s test cars cannot always take the cautious approach, which is to stop and let others pass. For example, if the car is confronted by aggressive jaywalkers, it can push its way forward to show that it intends to keep going rather than simply coming to a stop when someone gets in his way.
There will be situations where the safety driver may need to provide assistance, such as when dealing with a human being, a police officer or a construction worker, controlling traffic. In the future, such situations could be handled with the help of a switchboard operator, Shashua said.
Mobileye’s test cars in New York rely solely on an array of 12 different cameras. Not these cars use radar or lidar sensors, which are often touted by proponents as having numerous advantages over cameras, such as the ability to see through rain and snow.
Mobileye separately tests cars with lidar and radar and without cameras. Once each type of system can navigate safely on its own, the systems will be combined into a redundant self-driving system for commercially available vehicles, Shashua said. Cars with only lidar and radar are now only being tested in Israel, and the company did not say when testing of that system could expand.
The company said it plans to use its technology on driverless taxi fleets, as well in vehicles for personal use.
Mobileye’s computer vision systems are already used on many vehicles on the road today — the company is a supplier to most major automakers — and the company uses those vehicles to collect detailed 3D map data on roads around the world, Shashua said.
New York City, for example, has already been fully mapped thanks to anonymously transmitted data from thousands of cars driving here, he said
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Sources 2/ https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/20/business/self-driving-car-testing-in-new-york-city-mobileye/index.html The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article |
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