![]() Drivers who are potentially distracted, potentially sleepy, potentially ragey, potentially drunk. Throw in some jaywalking pedestrians, rule-bending cyclists, and, the most erratic variable of all-other drivers. What if you make it more complicated? Like putting an unpredictable human in charge of a one-ton vehicle traveling at ever-changing speeds. Solving for that equation requires synthesizing numerous variables, like speed and obstacles. Consider the simple act of moving from point A to point B. But will the sudden surge in global unemployment make true autonomy a step too far? Or will the increasingly unpredictable requirements for social distancing make autonomous delivery systems an essential part of a new society? Uncertainty, it seems, is all part of the process.Life is a complex problem. Right now, Waymo's target market is short-hop urban transport, with short and long-distance freight following afterwards. ![]() Building the Firefly was a bold first step, but also the realisation that car-making is not an easy task (something also discovered by Apple and, more recently, Dyson). Regardless of the technology powering Waymo, the company is nothing without a valid business case. When asked whether AVs need to be noticeably different from conventional cars, Ahn points out that ‘when it comes to safety, people don't really mind seeing sensors.' The balanced design also implies stability. ![]() Waymo have an option to acquire up to 20,000 I-PACEs, taking the vehicles from Jaguar's factory in Austria and adapting them Waymo's Michigan facilities. ‘The service and branding is almost more important that the car itself,' she muses, pointing out the convenience of having the visual identifier on the roof and the custom displays in the interior. YooJung Ahn acknowledges that self-driving cars are still in their very early stages. This is all proprietary technology – ‘we couldn't get off-the-shelf sensors that met our performance requirements,' says Ahn – and together they stitch together a vast open dataset (currently around 2TB worth and open to anyone to access) that is processed by the car's systems. That's just on top In total, the car has 29 exterior cameras, six radar sensors and five more LIDAR sensors around the vehicle. The sensors include a 360-degree LIDAR system, a 360-degree camera and long-range camera and 2 radars which are both forward facing. ![]() ‘People love technology but they don't want complexity,' says Ahn The I-PACE is a bit more sophisticated, with the recognisable essence of the Jaguar peeking out from beneath a carapace of sensors. We work closely with the engineering team from the beginning,' Ahn notes, pointing out that elements like layout, proportions, shapes and even the materials in the hefty roof pod are largely determined by the system requirements. It wasn't meant to be a "scary robot car". ‘When we started in 2013 people had no idea ,' Ahn says, ‘We made our first car look friendly, not intimidating. While Firefly had a distinct character, the Waymo I-PACE is rather more explicit in its display of technical might. As Ahn notes, ‘the technology is evolving every day,' and the Waymo approach evolves along with it. But our role is to have maximum flexibility.' As well as the flagship I-PACE, of which the first thirty or so can currently be seen in Phoenix and the Bay Area, there are advanced plans for a Waymo-powered truck and a smaller delivery vehicle. ‘We wanted an EV platform with a lot of power,' Ahn says, ‘We also wanted to give our user group a bit of diversity. It was a natural choice for several reasons. Waymo Driver number 5 is built upon the I-PACE platform, an accomplished pure EV. As well as integrating the latter, Ahn has to bring a sense of unity, corporate coherence and functional simplicity. ‘The cars are all prepared for our use,' the designer says, ‘it's not just about making panels differently – it's about internal materials being more durable, creating new consoles, headliners, etc.' But most of all, it's about incorporating Waymo's arsenal of sensors.Īt its core, Waymo is about software and sensors. Now it's the turn of an all-new car, the Jaguar I-PACE.Īhn, who studied industrial design at Hongik University gaining a Masters in Design Methods from the IIT Institute of Design, oversaw all these machines. So that's why we decided to work with OEMs.' In addtion to Firefly, Waymo's tech has been incorporated into Prius, Lexus and Chrysler platforms. ‘We sort of had a blank slate, but our biggest learning from the project was that when developing a car, scaling was a big issue,' Ahn says, ‘It was eye opening. We talked to her about the latest version of Waymo's self-driving machine. Her team has worked closely with the engineers from the outset, finding out new ways of designing for autonomy. ![]() The company's Head of Design, YooJung Ahn, has spent nearly eight years at Waymo. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |