Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - 11

We're not just trying to detect
pedestrians, but we need to detect
distracted pedestrians
and every object out there.
Danny Shapiro, Nvidia
Montemerlo, Dolgov has been with Waymo since the company
was known as the Google self-driving car project.
Reengineering the Chrysler Pacifica into a Waymo AV
entailed hundreds, if not thousands, of design changes to the
sensors and computers to make them more capable and reliable, Waymo engineers said. Future autonomous sensor development will need to focus on more capable longer-range sensors, with more energy-efficient chips, experts said.

SMARTER TOOLS

In addition to more efficient sensors, many in the industry see
deep learning - a machine's ability to continually analyze and
adapt to new situations - as a key to improving autonomous
vehicle systems.
The technology is said to be more efficient than a traditional
engineering approach, when it comes to helping AVs adapt to
real-world driving dynamics.
Experts said further deep learning development will help
improve self-driving vehicles' performance in unpredictable
scenarios. Take, for example, an object flying off the bed of a
truck and landing in an AV's path.
"We're not just trying to detect pedestrians, but we need
to detect distracted pedestrians and every object out there,"
said Danny Shapiro, senior director of automotive at Nvidia,

a Waymo partner whose hardware and software help enable
AI-powered self-driving.
The need for more advanced mapping technology will continue. But Montemerlo said mapping will remain more of a support system for self-driving sensor technology.
"We came to the realization there's this kind of sweet spot
in the middle where you can use a map to help fill in the gaps
in your perception in a way that you don't believe it as absolute
truth," Montemerlo said.

MORE TALENT

The growing need to develop smarter technology across all
sectors of the industry is driving an effort to find new ways to
attract designers, engineers and developers.
"We are all chasing the same talent right now. And it's a real
struggle, not only to hire the right talent, but then to keep them
on board," said Christophe Marnat, executive vice president of
the Electronics and Advanced Driver Assist Systems division,
with ZF Group, a Waymo partner.

'CHICKEN AND EGG PROBLEM'

Another big hurdle for self-driving vehicles is vehicle-to-infrasee CHALLENGES, p. 12

july 2019 * shift

Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019

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