Computer Vision News - September 2018

15 Application: ZOOX Computer Vision News Application the warning that “ Hey, you need to take over! " You might have to take over very, very fast. The problems might come from humans not being able to take over in the time that the system expects. In our vehicles, there’s no such backup, so the system is designed to be safer. ” Looking ahead, Sarah revealed that Zoox hopes its ground-up vehicles will be on public roads in the next couple of years. She says: “ It should be deployed in one urban area, say San Francisco. That would be our launch site where people can call a Zoox robot from an app somewhere in the city and be able to go somewhere else. We will have a fleet of these robots deployed, and we’re meeting the whole ODD that we set out . We should be able to drive completely autonomously, of course with the safety requirements that we set for ourselves. We have set, as an internal goal, to be much safer than humans at driving in these areas. ” Sarah adds: “ The other thing that I want to bring up is for people to remember where most of the accidents today come from. Approximately 94% of accidents today come from human judgment or human error. When speaking of autonomous vehicles, people sometimes think of really difficult situations that go wrong where maybe there was no good choice, like between hitting one person or the other person and what the robot would do. But it is true that these situations are tricky for human drivers as well and they occur very rarely. The everyday situations that happen are when you are distracted, texting on the phone, drunk driving, falling asleep and similar things - these are all situations we would completely avoid with robots. ” In essence, their system will avoid the circumstances that lead to most human fatalities and injuries from vehicles. The robots have full attention all around the vehicle at 360 degrees , whereas humans have very selective concentration. As a mother, Sarah looks forward to the benefits that Zoox will bring. “ I have a kid myself and every day I look at this vehicle, and think if it’s going to be safe enough to drive on the same street as where my child is. I would like to get to a point when I trust them to pick up my kid and bring him home; that would be great! ” With the tremendous progress of Zoox, it seems the days of getting picked up by a robotic car may come sooner than we all think. BTW, they are hiring! Ground-up vehicles will be on public roads in the next couple of years... “I have a kid myself and every day I look at this vehicle, and think if it’s going to be safe enough to drive on the same street as where my child is”