Mobileye has added New York City to its expanding global autonomous vehicle (AV) testing program. The company’s entry into the largest city in North America and one of the world’s most challenging driving environments marks, it says, a milestone for the company’s technology.
“Driving in complex urban areas such as New York City is a crucial step in vetting the capabilities of an autonomous system and moving the industry closer to commercial readiness,” said Professor Amnon Shashua, senior vice president of Intel and president and CEO of Mobileye.
As demonstrated in the video above, Mobileye’s camera-only subsystem AV is now successfully driving through New York City, on highly congested streets. The company notes that its True Redundancy approach first ‘doubles down’ on the computer-vision subsystem before adding a lidar/radar subsystem for redundancy.
Recently Mobileye applied for and received a New York AV testing permit to drive on New York’s streets and is the only company currently holding such a permit. Mobileye states that through both day and night-time driving, its AV is getting an advanced testing experience. It is having to contend with the gamut of New York traffic hazards such a jaywalking, which is particularly common in the city, alongside the notoriously assertive (some would say aggressive) driving behavior of the city’s residents.
There are many other challenging scenarios, including double parking, and a preponderance of construction sites. The architecture of the city also poses its own problems, there are 15 tunnels and 21 bridges in the city, all bedecked with street furniture such as bollards, and as the city that never sleeps, there is plenty of visual noise and light pollution.
