It's tricky to test self-driving cars. Even if you have hundreds of thousands of miles under your belt, it's still difficult to account for every possible real-world peril. Researchers think they can fast-track that experience, however. They've developed a sped-up testing process that should accomplish a lot in just a small amount of time. Instead of a holistic approach that gauges everything at once (and often goes for miles without a meaningful event), the new method breaks things down into individual components you can test frequently and repeatedly in simulations. If you want to gauge the car's reaction to someone cutting you off, for instance, you just focus on that -- you use stat analysis to determine how the car would behave in "boring" moments.
Just don't get too excited. The researchers are aware that they need to account for many, many more situations before this testing method is ready for practical use. How does a self-driving car handle jaywalkers, overloaded trucks or snow-covered streets? And of course, there's no guarantee that you'll see such a massive improvement with every car or every test. If the real results come even vaguely close to this, though, the automotive industry could be in for a shakeup. You may still end up waiting several years or more for viable driverless cars (there's still issues like regulation to consider), but they could be genuinely road-ready when they arrive. You wouldn't have to worry quite so much about your ride going awry due to limited testing, and it could be much easier to iron out whatever glitches are left.Turn on browser notifications to receive breaking news alerts from EngadgetYou can disable notifications at any time in your settings menu.Not nowTurn onTurned onTurn on
Researchers find a more effective way to test self-driving cars
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The Moral Machine took that idea to test nine different comparisons shown to polarize people: should a self-driving car prioritize humans over pets, passengers over pedestrians, more lives over fewer, women over men, young over old, fit over sickly, higher social status over lower, law-abiders over law-benders? And finally, should the car swerve (take action) or stay on course (inaction)?
The researchers acknowledged that the results could be skewed, given that participants in the study were self-selected and therefore more likely to be internet-connected, of high social standing, and tech savvy. But those interested in riding self-driving cars would be likely to have those characteristics also.
The study has interesting implications for countries currently testing self-driving cars, since these preferences could play a role in shaping the design and regulation of such vehicles. Carmakers may find, for example, that Chinese consumers would more readily enter a car that protected themselves over pedestrians.
Today, Uber tests self-driving cars on roads in Pittsburgh. But before a self-driving Uber car even hits the road, ATG performs multiple rounds of software simulations to make sure its nearly perfect.
Consider participating in a clinical trial so clinicians and scientists can learn more about TBI and related disorders. Clinical research uses human volunteers to help researchers learn more about a disorder and perhaps find better ways to safely detect, treat, or prevent disease.
Automatized cars need to be protected against unauthorized access. Privately owned cars can be equipped with face recognition or other bioidentification systems that only allow certain persons to start a ride (similar systems can exclude unauthorized persons from driving a conventional car, Park et al., 2017). Companies renting out self-driving cars will have strong incentives to install identification mechanisms that ensure proper payment and make it possible to trace customers who have done damage to the vehicle. Auto theft may therefore become much more difficult to get away with. This may lead to an increased prevalence of kidnappings with the sole purpose of using the kidnapped person to direct a self-driving car to a desired destination.
Dana-Farber researchers find that Gleevec, a targeted therapy that achieved striking success against chronic myelogenous leukemia, can shrink and even eliminate tumors in some patients with a rare and otherwise incurable digestive-tract cancer called gastrointestinal stromal tumor.
Institute researchers help introduce the use of naturally occurring growth factors to spur recovery of bone marrow following high-dose chemotherapy. To make bone marrow transplantation safer and more effective, they substitute for bone marrow a potent combination of young bone marrow cells (stem cells) and growth factors that spur their maturation.
Alyson Cavanaugh at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and her colleagues report that 46 of the 199 people at the care home were infected during the outbreak. (A. M. Cavanaugh et al. Morb. Mortal. Wkly Rep. ; 2021). The researchers estimate that the vaccine was 86.5% and 87.1% effective at preventing COVID-19 among residents and staff, respectively, who were more than 2 weeks past their second dose. The shots were even more effective at preventing hospitalization, although one vaccinated resident died.
Tulio de Oliveira at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa, Alex Sigal at the Africa Health Research Institute, also in Durban, and their colleagues tested blood plasma from people in South Africa who had been infected during one of the two waves (S. Cele et al. Nature ; 2021). The team found that plasma from the second wave was 15 times more effective at preventing the 501Y.V2 variant from infecting cells in a laboratory dish, compared with plasma from the first wave.
Large-scale trials of COVID-19 vaccines have focused on assessing their ability to prevent disease, but researchers also want to know whether the vaccines can prevent people from getting infected, even if they show no symptoms. Susan Hopkins at Public Health England in London and her colleagues tracked the effectiveness of the vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech in 23,000 UK health-care workers who were already part of a long-term study of SARS-CoV-2 immunity (V. J. Hall et al. Preprint at SSRN ; 2021). Participants were tested regularly for SARS-CoV-2, regardless of their symptoms.
Kate Bubar and Daniel Larremore at the University of Colorado Boulder and their colleagues modelled the effects of rolling out a vaccine if various age groups are given priority (K. M. Bubar et al. Preprint at medRxiv ; 2020). The researchers also examined the influence of the rate of viral spread in the population, the speed of vaccine delivery and the effectiveness of the protection offered by the vaccine.
Targeting people who have not been infected with SARS-CoV-2 to receive the vaccine might cut deaths and infections in hard-hit regions further, the researchers say. This could be achieved by testing for antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, which indicates a history of recent infection. The findings have not yet been peer reviewed.
Study author Daniel Larremore disclosed that he advises test company Darwin Biosciences; author Derek Toomre disclosed that he is a founder of smell-test company u-Smell-it. The findings have not yet been peer reviewed.
Using this method, the researchers required only one-quarter of the tests they would have needed to check every sample individually. They needed fewer tests than expected, because people from the same household, university, care home or hospital tend to get tested together, increasing the likelihood that positive samples are in the same groups. The findings have not yet been peer reviewed.
As a result, a snapshot of the viral-load distribution in a random sample of a population can reveal whether cases in that population are on the rise or are declining, the researchers say. They add that their method is less susceptible to biases from changing COVID-testing practices than simply counting daily cases. The findings have not yet been peer reviewed.
All samples came from people with COVID-19 symptoms, who tend to have high levels of coronavirus. The researchers caution that rapid antigen tests might be less effective at picking up the presence of the virus in people with low levels of virus. The finding has not yet been peer reviewed.
The researchers found that weekly surveillance testing, paired with case isolation, would limit an outbreak even if the testing method was less sensitive than qPCR. By contrast, surveillance testing done every 14 days would allow the total number of infections to climb almost as high as if there were no testing at all. The findings have not yet been peer reviewed.
Tests in the second half of March on more than 2,000 randomly selected individuals found that only 0.6% were infected. The researchers say their analysis suggests that measures to contain the virus through testing, contact tracing and quarantining have been successful in Iceland.
The researchers will use initial results from the study to determine which combinations of elements from the warning systems to evaluate further. FHWA expects to release the results of the entire study in spring 2004. If the researchers find that these infrastructure-based intersection collision warning systems are proven effective, they can later be integrated into in-vehicle warning systems to maximize safety performance.
During the 1960s, the United Kingdom's Transport and Road Research Laboratory tested a driverless Citroen DS that interacted with magnetic cables that were embedded in the road. It went through a test track at 80 miles per hour (130 km/h) without deviation of speed or direction in any weather conditions, and in a far more effective way than by human control. Research continued in the 1970s with cruise control devices activated by signals in the cabling beneath the tracks. According to cost benefit analyses that were made, adoption of system on the British motorways would be repaid by end of the century, increase the road capacity by at least 50% and prevent around 40% of the accidents. Funding for these experiments was withdrawn by the mid-1970s.[31][32][33] 2ff7e9595c
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