Waymo releases great comprehensive video showing what their self-driving van sees in real-time

Outside of the tech community, self-driving technology is still seeing a lot of pushback from people who don’t trust computers driving a car for them.

A new video released by Alphabet’s Waymo does a great job to familiarize people with the technology.

Of course, there’s an argument to be made that self-driving technology is not quite as safe as human drivers yet and it needs more development in order to work in all possible driving conditions. But some even doubt the potential of the technology to ever achieve such a capacity.

That’s despite the fact that humans themselves have proven again and again that we are far from a reliable drivers and still kill thousands every year.

I think more people need to recognize that while humans have great decision-making and computing power, we are fairly limited in terms of sensors (eyes) and we have many failure points (lack of attention, fatigue, intoxication, etc.).

Self-driving cars have a lot more potential in terms of perception, vision, and reliability.

This new 360-degree video from Waymo is a great example of it and could help people understand this potential in a very comprehensive way:

As we recently reported, Waymo is adding ‘thousands’ of Pacifica plug-in hybrid vans to its self-driving fleet in preparation for the imminent launch of its driverless ride-hailing service.

Electrek’s Take

That’s something that you can share with people in your life that have some doubts about the technology.

While I don’t think that it solves the entire problem, I think it could open people’s minds to the idea at least.

I also think it’s quite smart for Waymo to add onboard screens showing passengers what the vehicle can see while driving. It could be reassuring for some people.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.