[simmonmt]

> When they want data about a school intersection in SF at a certain time of day, they just... synthetically generate it and simulate

I think it's more about detecting changes to the world. You need boots on the ground, so to speak, to see that new speed limit sign or the new lane paint. The Waymo vehicle can no doubt react to changes in the world when it encounters them, relaying them back to the mothership, but it's better to know about them in advance.

[ra7]

Most AVs, definitely Waymo vehicles, are self mapping. They can detect environment changes and relay it to the entire fleet. That's because they map using the same vehicles as the fleet.

[delfinom]

>You need boots on the ground, so to speak, to see that new speed limit sign or the new lane paint.

It'll shock you to know that you can simply get this from governments, some even provide this in API form

[dmd]

It probably won't shock you to know that those sources of data can be months to even years delayed from what's actually out in the world.

[paganel]

> or the new lane paint.

I'd be surprised if this is a thing outside the biggest US (and European, for that matter) cities, judging from Google StreetView there are lots of streets in US cities/towns with almost no paint lines at all.

[msm_]

Do you mean in the API? I live in an European country and I don't think I ever saw an asphalt road without paint lines. This varies a lot between countries though.

[VorpalWay]

Small country side roads routinely lack a central line in Sweden. Even smaller roads can lack the side lines too. And I'm talking asphalt roads here still. The same happens on many residential streets in towns and cities.

But sure, it would be rare to have a large road or street without markings. But most roads aren't large. Most travelled kilometers happen on large roads, but that is not the same thing as most roads. And many individual journeys would involve at least a little bit of small roads at the beginning, end or both.

And of course, if they are covered with snow and ice during the winter you can't see the markings anyway.

[ThunderSizzle]

Many American roads don't have lines. Residential roads, parking lots, many business driveways have limited markings.

Then there's roads with just the center line markers with no road should markings.

Then there's a whole class of roads of lines over "demarked" old lines that weren't demarked well, or lines fading that should've been painted a long time ago.

I'm surprised you've never seen a non-perfect road?

[ssl-3]

Does Italy count? https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Google_M...

[paganel]

Here in Bucharest there are quite a lot of big boulevards that do not have them, either because they haven’t been repainted over in a long time or because they laid new asphalt without bothering to repaint the lines (this happens a lot, unfortunately, and is very frustrating).

[KaiserPro]

no visual data, you need picture data for that. companies like NC tech do it for like $1m a city. or thereabouts.

[MagicMoonlight]

That’s dumb then. It shows it’s just brute force rather than AI.

A human doesn’t need to be shown every single road that exists in order to drive.

[simmonmt]

That's true, but the human can do a much better job planning for the journey if they know what to expect along the way.

One example, from the end of the journey: knowing in advance where the actual entrance to the business is, or the specific curb cut that leads to the residence, makes it easier and far less error prone to decide exactly where the journey should end. Even humans have a hard time figuring out the right access point for a business or residence. This is a job for an offline process, fed by as many data sources as possible.

[ThunderSizzle]

Just a bunch of sophisticated if statements, I guess.