People on the streets of New York will soon see a new type of vehicle meandering around: Mobileye's prototype autonomous cars. The company's parent company, Intel, announced Tuesday that the vehicles are officially on the road in NYC to tackle "one of the world's most challenging driving environments." If you've ever been to New York, you know that's putting it lightly.
So far, Mobileye said, its AVs are learning a lot from the fast-paced city life. For example, the company said its AVs are learning from human motorists when it comes to double-parked cars. With parking so limited in the city, it's very common for a vehicle to double-park to unload, even if it means stopping in the road. Autonomous cars have problems determining what's going on in a case like this, but Mobileye's computers are starting to take cues from human drivers on when it's appropriate to drive around a stationary car. The self-driving car prototypes are also learning a lot about human behavior when it comes to jaywalkers and other foot traffic.
The company said its camera-only subsystem is doing exactly what it needs to do, and its crowdsourced maps meant to help the cars understand the world are shining in these tests. The cars have lidar and radar onboard; Mobileye's approach is to keep these systems for double redundancy, as a matter of safety. If you're up for it, you can watch 42 minutes' worth of Mobileye autonomous car prototypes driving around NYC, so grab a snack and check it out if you can't wait for robocars.
Intel Mobileye's autonomous cars in Jerusalem
