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How difficult is it to not hit something?

Let's suppose you are given a 2d field in which there are a number of rectangles, each of which have a velocity vector. So you know the ___location of each rectangle now, and, to a good approximation, in the near future.

How difficult is it to program a path-finding algorithm that will not crash into any of these rectangles, given that lowering speed is always a good option within a city?

I'd say this is really not all that difficult. Yes, there are a lot of special cases to consider, but still, in essence, this seems to me a quite simple problem.

So breaking down the problem is key. If you look at an autonomous vehicle as a black box, then, of course, it will seem dauntingly complicated, and difficult to trust.




> Let's suppose you are given

hard AI problem, computer vision

> to a good approximation, in the near future.

how near is near?

> lowering speed is always a good option

can't brake if someone faster is behind you

> there are a lot of special cases [..] simple problem

simple problems by definition don't have many special cases, the "simplicity" means you can abstract them into a few cases.

in other words, talk is cheap show me the code


IIRC, the autonomous cars all use a LIDAR system (kind of radar) to detect objects, and do not fully rely on computer vision.

Also, here's ([1]) an article about a student who (single-handedly!) wrote the software for a self-driving car, which doesn't use a LIDAR system and is much cheaper.

[1] http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/students-self-driving-car-...




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