| superchunk said: Nice add-on spurge. That really clears up the 'how' questions in regards to the car traversing a drive thru. |
Sorry, but I still don't think that is correct. I already knew the basics about the LIDAR tech from a TV program here in the UK 2-3 years ago (some university project I believe)... I was never saying it wouldn't be able to drive around a drive through, but that it won't understand certain differences in design. Yes it can 'see' the environment around it in 3D, and recognise road markings and other vehicles... But if there aren't any other vehicles or road markings for it to see, the only way for it to know which entrance to go to in many establishments is if it has been taught to do so by a real driver.
I would trust the car not to crash into anything more than I would trust myself, but without specific pre-progamming or some special indications it will not be able to cope in a lot of places where you are driving off the road network. Pre-programming could be driving the car through once to show it how, or perhaps some for of driver input like a touchscreen view of the cameras to be able to point the car to the correct entrance... or special indications would be signs that the LIDAR can read placed on all the relevant places to denote different types of entrance/exit. In some cases this might simply be to add road markings to match the main road network. And in the case of drive throughs there would need to be something it can recognise to tell it to stop at the order and/or collection area.
