Self-driving cars are equipped with all kinds of sensors and gadgets meant to help them decide where and when to turn, how to avoid obstacles like objects and people, but exactly how does it all “look” like? For those who are interested, the folks at Waymo have recently published a video that lets you see what self-driving cars “see”.
According to Waymo, “This experience combines footage and real-time data from a trip around Metro Phoenix, Arizona in one of our Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans. It puts you at the very heart of the technology, letting you see through the ‘eyes’ of our state-of-the-art sensors, including LiDAR, radar, and cameras. It brings to life how Waymo sees the world around it, recognizes objects like cars and pedestrians, predicts what those things will do, and then plans a safe path ahead.”
It is a very interesting video if you’re looking to get a basic understanding of how a self-driving car works. While it doesn’t dive into the technical details, it does show the various processes that go on behind the scene, such as identifying other cars around it, gauging its speed and distance, identifying traffic lights as to when it’s green and time to move, and so on.
It also takes that information to try and predict what will happen next, which could potentially be used to avoid accidents, like if a car were to suddenly swerve or brake. If you have a few minutes to spare, the video above could be worth taking a look at.