Waymo Releases Data Trove on Self Driving
Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo autonomous vehicle development unit is granting researchers free access to a huge data set useful for teaching self-driving vehicles how to “see.”
Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo autonomous vehicle development unit is giving researchers free access to a huge data set useful for teaching self-driving vehicles how to “see.”
The database comprises 1,000 high-resolution driving scenes that label such objects as cyclists, pedestrians and traffic signs. Waymo notes that giving researcher access to identified objects speeds up the process of teaching algorithms to interpret a vehicle’s surroundings.
The company’s offer comes a month after ride-hailing service Lyft Inc. released its own trove of data collected from sensors used by self-driving test vehicles. Lyft is making 55,000 3D frames of video footage available to autonomy researchers.
Developers of autonomous systems have become increasingly aware of the difficulties of teaching machines to accurately assess their surroundings. Waymo says its data offer is driven by a desire to “empower” the research community, not by fears that machine vision is too difficult for one company to master.
RELATED CONTENT
-
Cobots: 14 Things You Need to Know
What jobs do cobots do well? How is a cobot programmed? What’s the ROI? We asked these questions and more to four of the leading suppliers of cobots.
-
On Fuel Cells, Battery Enclosures, and Lucid Air
A skateboard for fuel cells, building a better battery enclosure, what ADAS does, a big engine for boats, the curious case of lean production, what drivers think, and why Lucid is remarkable
-
Mustang Changes for 2018
On Tuesday Ford unveiled—using the social media channels of actor Dwayne Johnson (this has got to unnerve some of the auto buff book editors)—the 2018 Mustang, which has undergone some modifications: under the hood (the 3.7-liter V6 is giving way to a 2.3-liter EcoBoost four, and a 10-speed automatic is available), on the dash (a 12-inch, all-digital LCD screen is available for the dashboard), at the tires (12 wheel choices), on the chassis (MagneRide damper technology is being offered with the Mustang Performance Package), and on the exterior (three new paint colors). And while on the subject of the exterior, there are some notable changes—a lower, remodeled hood, repositioned hood vents, new upper and lower front grilles, LED front lights, revised LED taillamps, new rear bumper and fascia.