“I don’t think LIDAR will even be necessary. Parallel parking is a pain in the butt, if they can do that they can drive on the freeway where everybody is going in the same direction. We already have lane tracking. The self driving car is happening right now.”
What can I say - LIDAR is exactly what Google is using. So I’m fairly sure its very necessary. An enormously expensive. And limited in certain ways.
Your comment about how easy it would be on the freeway with everybody driving the same direction got me thinking. In many cities, such as St. Louis, certain lanes of the freeway switch direction, based on the time of day. What technology would be necessary in a self driving car to be aware of this? We people read flashing signs and colored lights that warn of the change over. Will the DOT be expected to emit another type of signal (without error) to driverless cars? Just one of thousands of everyday scenarios that an automatic car would have to be prepared for.
I don’t think Google’s initiative will amount to much. It’s too little too late. The car companies are putting self driving in one portion of the drive at a time.
Reversible lanes are easy. You’ve already got the GPS so you know where you are, and the map so you know where the reversibles are, and a clock that’s updatable from GPS and therefore accurate. Got cameras too so reading the lights isn’t too tough.
Robots better be able to read signs and colored lights - how else would they navigate a typical intersection? Here is an interesting video.