Joynt: Google images shows what self-driving cars see

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Jordan Joynt

 

 

 

New images from Google’s self-driving car have shown up, courtesy of Bill Gross, Founder and CEO of Idealab. In a blog post, he explains some of the things the sensors capture, including other cars, rolling balls, cigarette butts, etc., gathering 750 megabytes of data per second.

The car captures everything it sees moving, making driving decisions accordingly.

If it sees a cigarette butt, it knows a person might be creeping out from between cars. If it sees a rolling ball it knows a child might run out from a driveway. I am truly stunned by how impressive an achievement this is,” Gross says.

Gross states the image and information was presented at an XPrize event over the weekend.

The project is being led by Google engineer Sebastian Thrun, director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View. So far, the team has tested on a Toyota Prius, an Audi TT and three Lexus RX450h, compiling over 300,000 miles across parts of San Francisco.

The test cars use roughly $150,000 worth of equipment, including a $70,000 LIDAR remote radar system.

While the technology is certainly advancing, the team expects to overcome several obstacles, such as mastering snowy terrain, before releasing the technology to the masses.