Ability of Self Driving Cars
 

Last evening driving north on I75 from Wesley Chapel to The Villages we encountered blinding torrential rain that slowed speeds to a crawl for 30 minutes, and forced us to exit for awhile until it subsided. Until we moved to Florida 20+ years ago we never encountered such blinding downpours. My car’s displayed a message that it’s radar systems (lane departure/etc) were unable to operate under these conditions. Do these Self Driving vehicles have 100% ability to operate under conditions as these? Scary!

Sorry you got caught in the downpour, but glad you did the safe thing by slowing down and getting off the road until safe to proceed.
As to self driving cars, rest assured that before AI take over the roads, newer, better tech will be in the "drivers seat". Human drivers, from the youngest to the oldest are extremely fallible. Each thinks their way is best. AI doesn't have ego and attitude playing a part in highway transportation. Like an elevator. You will get in the car and it will calculate route, speed, etc to get you to your destination in the safest and most efficient manner. No slow drivers hogging the left lane. No speeders zipping in and out of traffic. My only regret is I won't be around to enjoy it.

They don’t have 100% ability to operate under ANY conditions.

Bingo.

I have seen similar messages on ours even under moderate to heavy rains, a lot depends on where and how the sensor(s) are mounted, in any case our system disengaged, and we had to manually maintain a safe speed.

By the way, I do not consider ANY car to be capable of self driving except in ideal conditions, and then they may only be marginal.

If the TSR can’t recognize speed signs and can’t pick up the traffic markings on the road, prepare to take control.

I would never trust it. I have a Kia nero hybrid. It has lane assistance. It "helps" keeps you in the lane. Of course, unless.. the painted lines are faded, or the painted lines are yellow, etc. It can also pull you off to an exit..

Actually that is not true. Waymo operates an autonomous ride service in the Phoenix area. It is limited to those areas that have been geomapped, IIRC. In other words, it is not available everywhere. I’m sure there are some weather conditions that cause suspension of the service. It’s “eyes” are predominately LIDAR.

That is normal. Have received this notice many times in bad weather. Its referenced in the car manual

Along with these, less than an hour south of us.

Move Nona | Beep

Those dust storms in Arizona would definitely cripple that operation. I only experienced it one time but it is amazing.

LIDAR, which is a laser based system, and vision (cameras) are the two predominant systems that are being used in the effort to create Level 5 autonomous driving. Much like human beings’ vision, if the atmospheric conditions are such that these systems are compromised then driving will not be possible. I have driven a couple of Teslas and while they are still at Level 2 it was impressive.

Yet.

Very interesting thread. Never realized weather would be a huge factor (other than snow of course).

Electronic sensors can fail, I prefer relying on my own senses.