Self-driving cars are 'not even close': Head of Carnegie Mellon University robotics lab hits out at Uber (after it poached most of his department)
- Herman Herman of CMU's robotics labs says driverless cars are not close
- All the companies still need engineers to ride in the vehicle during tests
- Companies have only figured out 80 percent of self-driving technology
- Uber says they want to replace human drivers as soon as possible
Uber famously poached a third of Carnegie Mellon University’s robotics lab staff in 2015 in a bid to fulfill their mission for self-driving taxis.
Although the ride-sharing giant is among the many who believe driverless cars are just around the corner, the head of the university’s robotics lab thinks otherwise.
Herman Herman, named the group's new director after it was gutted, believes companies are 'technically' not ready because they still need engineers the in car - and says a true self driving service is 'not even close'.
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Uber poached a third of Carnegie Mellon University’s robotics lab staff in 2015. Although the ride-sharing giant is among the many big players in the industry who believe driverless cars are just around the corner, the head of the university’s robotics lab thinks otherwise. Pictured is a concept drawing of Uber's self-driving cars
‘With autonomous cars, you see these videos from Google and Uber showing a car driving around, but people have not taken it past 80 percent,’ Herman told Jordan Pearsonat Motherboard.
‘It’s one of those problems where it’s easy to get to the first 80 percent, but it’s incredibly difficult to solve the last 20 percent.’
‘For you or me to buy a car that can drive autonomously from point A to point B—it’s not even close.
‘There are fundamental problems that need to be solved.’
Herman stepped up as head of the lab after more than 40 of the 100 scientists, including the director, were taken to a new location by Uber to working on a fleet of driverless taxis, reports Motherboard.
Prior to Uber cleaning house, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) was well-known for its work with autonomous research.
In February 2015, the two struck a deal to focus on mapping and safety technologies to support Uber’s ride-sharing mission.
However, it only took three months before the California firm left the university in crisis by taking a third of its staff.
The robotics lab's funding was cut in half by the end of 2015, but recently Uber passed along a check for $5.5 million that could either be as a ‘thank you’ or ‘sorry’.
‘For you or me to buy a car that can drive autonomously from point A to point B—it’s not even close,' said Herman. 'There are fundamental problems that need to be solved.’ Prior to Uber cleaning house, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) was well-known for its work with autonomous research
Herman told Pearson that the robotics lab bounced back since the failed partnership and now has 115 scientists working for the department.
They had ‘plenty of projects that were minimally affected’, he said, but the group did have to cancel two projects they were working on.
Although Herman and his team were affected by the Uber’s controversial move, the ridesharing firm seems to be moving along with their plans.
This year, Uber’s souped up autonomous Ford cars were seen through around the streets of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, CMU’s headquarters.
And most recently, the firm announced a partnership with Volvo.
In February 2015, the two struck a deal to focus on mapping and safety technologies to support Uber’s ride-sharing mission. However, it only took three months before the California firm left the university in a ‘crisis’ by taking a third of its staffUber says it will also start hauling passengers with self-driving Volvo CX90 cars. But the company said they will also have back-up drivers
Uber says the self-driving Volvo XC90 cars will have human backup drivers to begin with, but the ultimate goal is to replace human drivers with driverless vehicles as 'quickly as possible', said Uber co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick.
This will involve Uber adding its own self-developed autonomous driving systems to the Volvo base vehicle.
Volvo will use the same base vehicle for the next stage of its own autonomous car strategy, which will involve fully autonomous driving.
‘Technically, I’m not sure if it’s ready,’ explained Herman.
‘They still have to have engineers in the car.
So, for technical reasons, it’s not there.’
‘But for non-technical reasons, they decided that it’s a good idea to start talking about it.’
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