As part of the company's effort to make sure that its self-driving cars are safe during the rainy season, Waymo is bringing them in Florida for a rain test. Waymo recently announced that it would commence testing a set of Chrysler Pacificas and one Jaguar I-Pace through Florida's notorious rainy season. The company added that the test would run over the span of the next several weeks.
In a statement posted on its official blog, Waymo wrote, "Heavy rain can create a lot of noise for our sensors. Wet roads also may result in other road users behaving differently. Testing allows us to understand the unique driving conditions and get a better handle on how rain affects our own vehicle movements, too."
The test will run for several weeks and will be executed in the city of Naples. In order to make sure that the test will not disrupt public traffic, Waymo said that it would be conducted in a private and closed course. Subsequently, after the initial tests, Waymo will be fielding its self-driving cars on public roads in Miami. Although, as part of precautionary regulations, the cars will have human drivers in them. After this, the Waymo self-driving cars will be tested in a number of highways in between Miami, Fort Myers, Tampa, and Orlando.
Although self-driving cars are usually safe, to begin with, many tech and industry experts believe that the rainy season will have adverse effects on its sensors. Self-driving cars use a wide array of sensors in order to navigate through streets. These sensors are very sensitive to outside forces, which is why exhaustive tests are required before they are fielded in public streets.
A study conducted by Michigan State University has found out that even self-driving car algorithms can be affected even just by slight rain. These algorithms are crucial components of self-driving cars as they are responsible for detecting pedestrians, as well as other road users. Additionally, many of these self-driving algorithms were tested during fair weather. As such, these algorithms are not familiar with driving conditions when the road is wet and slippery.
Bad weather just one of the many hurdles that self-driving cars need to conquer before they can be eventually rolled-out into public streets. Earlier this year, there were a number of reports claiming that Waymo cars are somewhat confused when placed in a crowded parking lot. Self-driving car manufacturers are aware of these weaknesses, and they are conducting exhaustive tests in order to fix them.
