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Video: Waymo self-driving car lets cyclists pull out of blocked cycle lane

Google’s self-driving car project working to ensure vehicles understand cyclists’ unique behaviour

A video has been posted by Google’s Waymo self-driving car project to showcase how its driverless technology accounts for cyclists. In the footage, the vehicle predicts that two cyclists will move out to pass a vehicle blocking the cycle lane and slows to allow them to safely pull out.

Since 2009, Waymo vehicles have driven more than 10 million miles on the road, creating a vast library of the kinds of scenarios a driver might encounter.

The firm says its cars are programmed to recognise cyclists as ‘unique users of the road’ and drive conservatively around them. The cars can recognise common hand signals and have been taught to recognise other common behaviour as well.

In an article on Medium, Waymo’s Chief Safety Officer Deborah Hersman writes: “Safely sharing the road is an important part of driving, and the Waymo driver tirelessly scans for objects around the vehicle — including pedestrians, cyclists, vehicles, road workers, animals, and obstructions — and then predicts their future movements based on information such as speed, trajectory, and road context.”

Hersman says the vehicles are designed to understand that different types of road users will not behave in the same way.

“Our technology is able to perceive and accurately classify different road users which, in turn, allows our self driving vehicles to predict their behaviour.”

She continues: “As we work to build the world’s most experienced driver, we’re putting considerable thought and engineering into ensuring our vehicles can understand cyclists’ unique behaviour and are ready to act with their safety and protection top of mind.

“In this video, a Waymo vehicle sees a cyclist and predicts that the rider will shift out of the bike lane to get around a parked trailer. Our Waymo driver is designed to drive defensively around cyclists to help prevent the common collision scenarios that occur between cyclists and human drivers every day.”

One of the issues Waymo has faced is that quite often its vehicles drive too cautiously. The vehicles have been hit from behind on several occasions as a result of sudden, unexpected braking.

In 2015, a cyclist told of how he had confused one of the firm’s cars by trackstanding at a junction. The firm said it welcomed that incident, as these sorts of events help the software learn about bike riders' behaviour.

Shortly afterwards, Dmitri Dolgov, principal engineer of the project, employed somewhat ill-advised wording, saying that the firm was working to make its cars ‘more aggressive’.

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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6 comments

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Rich_cb | 5 years ago
2 likes

Waymo are rapidly approaching level 5 autonomy so the cars should be able to deal with all vulnerable road users in a responsible manner by now.

I can't wait for driverless cars. It's going to be the best thing to happen to our society in a long time.

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FluffyKittenofT... | 5 years ago
2 likes

The fact that this is specificaly Waymo (not surprised that it isn't Uber), makes me wonder again...If some companies produce cars that behave safely around cyclists, at the possible cost of occasionally delaying the car-user unncessarily, while others are more gung-ho and risk-taking...which one will the 'market' choose?

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ooldbaker replied to FluffyKittenofTindalos | 5 years ago
5 likes

FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:

The fact that this is specificaly Waymo (not surprised that it isn't Uber), makes me wonder again...If some companies produce cars that behave safely around cyclists, at the possible cost of occasionally delaying the car-user unncessarily, while others are more gung-ho and risk-taking...which one will the 'market' choose?

The Market will choose between those that the regulators allow to operate.

Following the highway code will be a necessary requirement.

Also the human impatience behind a wheel is irrational and whilst I feel competitive when driving it doesn't transfer to a similar feeling when I am a passenger. 

I think taking the emotion out of driving is entirely a good thing.

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FluffyKittenofT... replied to ooldbaker | 5 years ago
3 likes

ooldbaker wrote:

FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:

The fact that this is specificaly Waymo (not surprised that it isn't Uber), makes me wonder again...If some companies produce cars that behave safely around cyclists, at the possible cost of occasionally delaying the car-user unncessarily, while others are more gung-ho and risk-taking...which one will the 'market' choose?

The Market will choose between those that the regulators allow to operate.

Following the highway code will be a necessary requirement.

Also the human impatience behind a wheel is irrational and whilst I feel competitive when driving it doesn't transfer to a similar feeling when I am a passenger. 

I think taking the emotion out of driving is entirely a good thing.

 

Those would be the same regulators who currently allow reckless drivers with masses of penalty points, and, indeed, criminal convictions, to carry on driving?  The same regulators who were fooled with regard to emissions testing?  Hmmm.

Avatar
Bmblbzzz | 5 years ago
6 likes

I think it is obeying the law. In California and probably other USA states, the law is that you should pull into the cycle lane before turning right. This is specifically in order to avoid right-hooking. What's concerning to me is that it's already overtaken the cyclists and got pretty close to the parked vehicle before it slows to allow them out. A decent driver would anticipate the situation before that and slow down before overtaking the cyclists. A bad one on the other hand would carry straight paying no attention whatsoever, so I guess we can class Waymo as a medium sort of driver. 

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ktache | 5 years ago
3 likes

Yes it does slow down to let the cyclists out, well done, (though of course we cannot know if it was the vehicle or the operator doing this), what is more concerning to me is that after it passes the van it immediately pulls into the into the cycle lane, it should at least be attempting to obey the law, and this is ignored by the operator.  If this is the best they can come up with after 10 million miles I worry about it's abilities in the real world.

Or even the level of incompetence that means they couldn't edit that bit out.

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