If you have nothing better to do, reflect on the pace of change on our planet.
The Stone Age was a terrific change, so good that it lasted more than three million years. Nothing could beat it . . . until the Bronze Age. That was the cat’s pyjamas from about 3300 BCE to 1200 BCE but the Iron Age was even better. In the Modern Age there have been little leaps forward, the most significant in the UK being the Industrial Revolution.
We are going through a similar revolution in this century but it is happening at breakneck speed. In August 2017 two Cambridge PhD students (Alex Kendall and Amir Shah) studying machine learning had an idea they thought good enough to develop commercially. They invented the technology to create a self-driving car but they needed some start-up finance and maybe were prepared to sell their concept so, not being shy, they went to Elon Musk. He looked at it and said it wouldn’t work and, of course he was already working on his system, Waymo.
“Waymo builds detailed 3D high-definition maps of every street it operates on and uses those maps… to navigate. This creates a slow, city-by-city rollout” (Bloomberg). It haas been rolling out across cities in the US and is almost good to go in London. Its development started in 2009 and since 2016 it has been owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
The Cambridge students’ system is Wayve and became operational in London yesterday. It’s different to Waymo because it teaches the car to drive and does not make it learn from maps. As noted by TechTimes, “Wayve uses no pre-built maps at all.” Its AI processes real-time data to handle new environments instantly using “a lean, end-to-end deep learning foundation model that processes raw data from cameras and radar to make real-time decisions without needing pre-mapped HD cities. This approach aims for much faster global scalability and lower hardware costs” (Bloomberg).
Undoubtedly both systems will evolve and it remains to be seen which will come out on top or if they can co-exist. They look much the same on the street but they are fundamentally different. Right now Wayve cars are Ford Mustangs operated by Uber and Waymo is on an electric Jaguar I-Pace. It’s early days but pleasing to see something invented in the UK coming to fruition so quickly.
Now a note of realism. If you want to ride in a Wayve car you cannot specifically order one on Uber. There are only fifteen in London and after you have ordered a ride in an Uber, the app will tell you if one is available in your area. It costs the same and, for now, has a human safety driver behind the wheel who can intervene if necessary. To get the robotic experience the safety driver may not speak to passengers. So there you go.