Unexpectedly, 2,500 vehicles can drive themselves and drive in six major cities in the United States.Waymo, will be stumped by the simplest thing - the vehicle cannot close the door by itself.In other words, if passengers forget to close the door, these unmanned vehicles will have to stay where they are, which will delay fleet operations and may hinder traffic.And this kind of problem,Far away in the PhilippinesThe cloud security officer will definitely not be able to solve the problem. It would be too inefficient to send someone to the scene just to close the car door.
What to do?
Recently, some netizens discovered that Waymo has found a solution:Pay a delivery boy to help close the car door.
But new questions also arise, who will pay for it?
Waymo hires delivery boy to help close shop
If netizens hadn’t discovered it, perhaps no one would have thought of this issue——
If a passenger leaves without closing the door, the Waymo self-driving car may not be able to continue driving.
But now it seems that Waymo has found a solution.
On the social platform Reddit, a DoorDash(The largest food delivery platform in the United States)of“Takeaway boy”, telling the story of how he discovered this problem.
While he was waiting to receive the order, he saw a strange requirement in the order:
The driver does not need to deliver the food, he only needs to go to the nearest location1 kmNext to a Waymo self-driving car,close the car door, you can get$6.25of remuneration.
And after the confirmation is completed, the driver can get another$5award. That is to say, he helped Waymo close the car door and received a total of$11.25(about 78 yuan).
The car can drive itself and handle various complex road conditions, but it cannot close the door by itself... It really amused netizens:
Soon, Waymo came forward to confirm that it was indeed working onPilot in Atlanta, USAThis method: When the Waymo vehicle door is not closed, the nearby DoorDash delivery person will receive a notification to help the vehicle get back on the road as soon as possible.
To add some background here, DoorDash was founded in 2013 as a food delivery platform founded by three Chinese students from Stanford University. It is now the leader in food delivery in the United States.
In October last year, Waymo just reached a cooperation with DoorDash - in the Phoenix metropolitan area of the United States, DoorDash users can choose Waymo's driverless cars to deliver to their door when ordering food.
Waymo revealed that this pilot project is a new and more flexible way for the company and DoorDash to work together to allow DoorDash delivery riders to earn more income.
In fact, this is not the first time Waymo has asked for help on the "closure issue."
Waymo previously operated in Los Angeles and Honk(Roadside assistance service platform)Cooperate, if Honk users help close Waymo’s car door, they can earn up to$24(about 166 yuan).
Some people in the comment area also expressed their own experiences, saying that they had received similar needs. Someone else took a video explaining why this door-closing problem happens repeatedly - usually it'sThe seat belt got caught in the crack of the door.:
So netizens joked that all it takes to scare an autonomous driving company is a picture of a seat belt:
However, one point that more people are paying attention to is whether Waymo will collect unpaid passenger fares.Deduct money.
If there is no charge, for autonomous driving companies that already spend a lot of money and urgently need to reduce costs, there will be another expense in operating costs, and profits will seem further away.
But everyone seems to have discovered an incredible way to make extra money.
:
All joking aside, outsiders speculate that Waymo will most likely not charge extra fees, but to fundamentally solve this kind of "car door" problem, the top priority is to install automatic doors.
Waymo also made it clear in its external statement that Waymo autonomous vehicles launched in the future will be equipped withAutomatic door closing function, but it is unknown when it will be launched.
After all, Waymo’s sixth-generation new car has just hit the road.
Waymo deploys sixth-generation self-driving cars, sprints to 1 million weekly orders
Waymo recently announced that the company has officially deployedSixth generation Waymo Driver system, the car can operate on the road without a safety officer.
According to the announcement, this is the culmination of 7 years spent by Waymo, with a cumulative driving mileage of nearly200 million miles(about 320 million kilometers) - can go around the equator8032 circles, covering the core areas and highways of more than ten major cities.
Compared with the fifth-generation system, the sixth-generation system reduces the number of sensors by approximately 42%:
Camerareduced from 29 to13,lidarreduced from 5 to4, while still equipped with6 radars.
However, Waymo emphasized that although the number of sensors is reduced, the new system can provide higher resolution, longer detection range and more powerful computing power.
The core of the camera system is17 million pixelsWaymo claims that its imager performs far better than ordinary vehicle cameras and the human eye. It has an ultra-wide dynamic range and can capture key details in shadows under strong light.
Through custom-designed chips and optical designs, Waymo has also developed a set of sensors with longer detection range, higher accuracy, and stronger stability.lidar system.
The lidar's scene lighting and internal data processing methods have also been redesigned to help the lidar penetrate bad weather and avoid point cloud distortion near highly reflective signs, which enhances the system's ability to penetrate thick road splashes in complex and extreme situations.
The radar uses a more sensitive and affordable radar chipset that can generate high-density, high-time-series maps to instantly track the distance, speed and size of objects under various lighting and weather conditions.
The entire system features a hydrophobic coating, an integrated cleaning system, and replaceable modular sensor components to accommodate inclement weather.
More importantly, while the performance is improved, the sensor componentscostIt also dropped along with the industry average.
According to media analysis by Electrek, the unit price of the sixth-generation Driver system is expected to be lower than$20,000(138,000 yuan), which is more than 50% lower than the fifth-generation system.
Waymo’s new system is designed to be adaptable across platforms and is currently planned to be installed on two models:
One isVery kryptonianThe same model of Krypton MIX created by Waymo, namedOjai, this model has a lower entry and exit height and an integrated B-pillar door.
Currently, Ojai has been put into use in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles in the United States.
The other one ismodern carprovidedIONIQ 5.
According to the plan, Hyundai will provide Waymo with vehicles by 202850,000 vehiclesIONIQ 5 is used as a Robotaxi and is expected to cost around $50,000 per vehicle.
According to Waymo CEO Tekedra Mawakana, Waymo plans to have more than 100,000 weekly orders in the United States by the end of this year.1 million times. On average,99 orders are completed per minute, 1.65 orders are completed per second.
However, it remains to be seen whether the sixth generation can close its doors on its own...