(Credit: Waymo)
Waymo today introduced its sixth-generation autonomous driving system, which it says can handle tougher road conditions and colder climates.
The service currently operates in warm weather cities, such as Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. To expand into cities with harsher climates, the Alphabet-owned company realized it needed an expanded set of capabilities.
"Through regular road trips to newer cities, we've deepened our understanding of winter weather's impact on our technology and operations and applied these valuable insights directly to our sixth-generation system," says Waymo.
That means more cameras and sensors, which help the software, dubbed Waymo Driver, operate in a range of weather conditions. The vehicles now have 16 cameras, four LiDAR, six radar, and "an array of external audio receivers (EARs)."
They make up a new sensor suite, which "provides the Waymo Driver with overlapping fields of view, all around the vehicle, up to 500 meters away, day and night, and in a range of weather conditions," Waymo says. If anything obstructs the car's view, new "protective measures" ensure the sensors can regain their vision.
It's still tough to imagine a self-driving car operating in a cold, Midwestern winter, where it may need to get itself out of a snowbank, or clear off an icy windshield in the morning, but perhaps it gets the service closer.
The sixth-gen system is also built to be more efficient, and less costly—a welcome enhancement for Alphabet, which invested a fresh $5 billion in Waymo last month, CNBC reports.
"We’ve significantly reduced the cost of our 6th-generation system while delivering even more resolution, range, compute power, and enabling more capabilities," says Waymo. (And, hopefully, less late-night honking.)
Waymo did not disclose any cold-weather cities in which it plans to expand. Its next target is Austin, Texas.