Self-driving car on Moscow streets after snowfall [video]

[ocdtrekkie]

If anyone was going to focus on making sure their self-driving car could drive in snow, it'd be the Russians.

Mind you, self-driving when snow has coated all your landmarks is definitely impressive, but the title made me think it'd be driving in snow. Which it isn't. The roads are, what we'd call in Chicago, "clear". The car is not driving in/on snow or ice in this scenario, which is something I do regularly every winter.

[walrus01]

Canadian perspective: This is very clear. Much more challenging is something like a multi-lane highway where the road markings have completely disappeared under snow. I'll be impressed when it can drive from Hope into the BC interior in winter in conditions that a human driver can handle with winter tires and possibly studs, but no need for chains.

https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=coq...

[jpindar]

Yeah, as a New Englander, that's not what I call driving after a heavy snowfall.

[emmelaich]

Not only that, but the contrast between road and non-road is even clearer with the snow.

Which may make the auto driving easier.

[mozumder]

Rochester NY is probably the best place in the world for actual snow driving. Daily snowfall during the winter due to lake-effect snow. It's where I trained to drive a rear-wheel drive Camaro. Very useful place.

[starpilot]

Well, there's also Detroit.

[tw04]

I'm sorry - this isn't a "heavy snowfall" in Moscow. It's just barely a dusting. That isn't even an inch of accumulation. Being able to self-drive when there is black pavement to be seen isn't impressive in the least. Show me a self-driving car functioning in white-out conditions (which is what Moscow faces on a regular basis, as does a large portion of the US) and I'll be impressed.

This: http://bgr.com/2018/02/06/moscow-snow-russia-winter-storm/

Is what it looked like ~two weeks ago. Show me your self-driving car in THAT.

[taylored]

In fact this scenario is easier than no snow, since road edges are so clearly defined

[neutered_knot]

If you look closely the car is driving in circles. They revisit the same roads many times in just a few block radius.

[kurthr]

I also noticed that it was driving 25... I assumed that was 25 km/hr, which is pretty darned slow (15mph) even on snowy city streets. However, it could be that they're running the car in US mph instead?

[lnanek2]

I'd love for it to be true, but it's tough to believe that's real. There's one point where a pedestrian is standing in the snow on the road just to the side of where the car would pass: https://youtu.be/Bx08yRsR9ow?t=35s

Wouldn't any pedestrian detection decide the person in the road has priority and stop and let them cross? It isn't capable of reading a person's intention to stand there vs. cross or not.

The title claims it supports interactions with pedestrians, and the video does seem to show it pausing in the middle of a turn once for a pedestrian in the road, but that could be easily faked by having the driver still using manual breaks.

[stefan_]

I thought 1:50 was a lot more concerning:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx08yRsR9ow&feature=youtu.be...

That pedestrian is already in the street and they momentarily stutter then pass the pedestrian with very little room.

That and the way the steering seems super sensitive to various snow remainders on the side of the street. It's almost as if it's controlling for its position relative to the snow instead of picking a mostly straight trajectory.

[mrtksn]

In some places, people often walk on the road and it's expected that the drivers will just drive next to them.

If self-driving cars are to use the current infrastructure and drive as a regular car on regular roads then better be able to handle this.

[EScott11]

From what I can tell it looks like the pedestrian’s vector is heading away from the car (right to left) for a few frames before he pauses. Couldn’t a level 5 model infer intentionality in a direction based on the way the pedestrian was walking?

[flyingfences]

It also looks to me like it's braking very late at times. That's not the sort of caution that one would expect from a prototype.

[ckdarby]

If that is after a heavy snowfall they need to test in Canada.

[avmich]

Maybe it's also after cleaning streets right after heavy snowfall? :)

For snow-covered roads we'll have to wait for reports from, say, Chelyabinsk. Or Tomsk, or Novosibirsk...

[konart]

People often forget that while Moscow is in Russia - this is not Syberia or something. We have a bit more snow than Berlin usually and a bit lower temperature.

[solomatov]

There're no such snowfalls in Moscow like it happens on East Coast or Eastern part of Canada.

[seeekr]

So this video features a self-driving car developed by Yandex. Does someone have insight into why so many big tech companies seem to all be in agreement that developing self-driving cars is an area they need to be pursuing? Is it mostly everyone looking at what Google is doing and replicating that? Or is it the getting swept up by the Uber hype? Or is working on self-driving car software just such a natural extension to what these tech companies have been doing all along in their main areas of expertise anyway?

(I feel like this question must have been brought up a number of times already, since these projects have been going on for a while by now.)

[lokopodium]

Yandex runs an Uber-like service in Russia, would make total sense to get driverless cars.

[konart]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yandex.Taxi

[vpribish]

technically correct title (the best kind!) - but clickbaity because everyone wants to see a serious test of self-driving on snow-covered, icy roads, ideally with actually blinding, falling snow - at night. This is, if anything, even easier than a non-snowy drive because of the high contrast between the completely clear road and the snow-dusted sidewalks.

The dream that the developers, the media, and many of us share is to change the world by making driving a thing people do not do. Matching a human driver in the most treacherous conditions is a major, and unmet milestone. This is a misleading post.

[web007]

Have you ever seen someone driving in snow anywhere south of Pennsylvania in the US?

This tech, as-is, could probably save millions in damage on minor or one-car accidents in snowy aftermath. Even if it snows once or twice a year, somehow everyone forgets how to drive safely in the snow and Every.Single.Time there is snow the world just stops.

Unrelated to this video, I was impressed with my Subaru EyeSight performance in a whiteout rainstorm. I could tell what was going on - barely, with the wipers at full tilt - and my auto-cruise worked without a hitch at > 50MPH for several minutes straight. It's definitely hit-or-miss though, since sometimes it gets confused on a bright overcast day at 25MPH.

[sthistrhn55]

Little closer

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7hUut7Hsgys

[bmer]

Anyone else find it strange how still the one hand in view is? It never moves...

[adventured]

It moves at 17 seconds in, at 44 seconds in, 1 min 51 seconds in, etc. I'm guessing the driver was intentionally holding his hand there with effort, ready to grab control of the wheel if necessary.

[golergka]

I live in the neighborhood; these streets are all around Yandex headquarters. It's one of the best districts in the whole city, streets rigorously cleaned, very light traffic and surprisingly cultured drivers. Even after recent record-breaking snowfalls, these streets were very clear short after.

Would love to see them trying to drive anywhere else in the city though.

[gaurx003]

Compared to here in Minnesota, those roads look very clean - no drifting snow, no dry salt lines, no black ice.

[BugsJustFindMe]

This is heavy snowfall? It looks like only an inch or two.

[Piskvorrr]

Wonder what's that thing at 1:40 ;) "at turn, wipers suddenly full tilt for no apparent reason, person gives input to the right paddle" - yes, I know that control normally sends CAN messages for wiper operation in all modern cars, and that it wouldn't make sense to release a video with overt manipulation of the system; I have been conditioned to look for side channels though, and this is technically a human giving a driving-related input.

But seriously, what does the car need the wipers for? All the sensors are outside anyway, no?

[undersuit]

The wipers are needed for when a human needs to take control and if a human needs to suddenly take control they need to have the wipers already working recently.

[tyingq]

The hardest human equivalent in New England in my youth, was a 4 way stop at the peak of a steep hill. Would have loved to seen this scenario with the self driving car.

[M_Bakhtiari]

I wonder how it handles those erratic Ladas flying at you from all directions.

[nasredin]

Wait, flying cars? Did I miss something? How long have I been asleep?

[pvaldes]

I hope that this is not the normal speed of the video. It looks a dangerous situation for pedestrians to me, specially in urban roads and streets.

[Tolika]

There's a 4x indicator in the top right corner.

[thriftwy]

It's actually area around Yandex's main Moscow campus, Red Rose. I have walked there countless times when we went out for dinner.

[EADGBE]

Would love to see how it performs before the plows reveal the pavement.

This isn’t as impressive as I was led to believe. Those roads are completely exposed!

[mizzao]

Next up...self-driving car dashcam videos!

[chemodax]

Most of the trip speed is 25 km/h, while speed limit in Moscow is 60 km/h.

[dmix]

The speed limit on narrow side roads is 60km/hr? I find that hard to believe...

[konart]

>while speed limit in Moscow is 60 km/h.

Only when you are outside of apartments' territory.

http://pddmaster.ru/pdd/pravila-dorozhnogo-dvizheniya-dlya-z...

[timvisee]

I like how the car alows down a lot when squeezing through tight gaps