14 DAY TRIAL // Google’s self-driving cars have improved a lot lately and they’re now covering thousands of miles in the United States, which shows that autonomous vehicles are the future and they’re coming faster than anyone expected.
But they’re clearly not flawless and a recent incident that involved a Google car showed a self-driving vehicle hitting a bus because it mistakenly speed and direction.
And although accidents are kind of normal at this point in the development of self-driving cars, Microsoft thinks that it can avoid them and is ready to lend a hand to Google to improve its technology.
In a blog post discussing the Kinect sensor, Microsoft says that it’s this tech the one that can help make autonomous vehicles even more effective when it comes to preventing collisions, pointing to a system built by researchers at the University of La Laguna as the living proof.
As WindowsCentral notes, Microsoft doesn’t specifically call Google by name in its blog post, but it talks about an accident involving a self-driving car and a bus, so it’s very clear who the software giant is referring to.
Microsoft seems to be more interested in self-driving cars
Microsoft explains how the new system based on Kinect could work in a self-driving vehicle and make it a little bit more advanced when it comes to avoiding collisions such as the one with the bus:
“Could a Kinect sensor have helped the autonomous car make the better decision? Researchers at the University of La Laguna in the Canary Islands think so. They are building a system that uses the Kinect sensor's infrared depth camera to help self-driving cars identify nearby obstacles and maneuver around or over them,” the company says.
“Using a self-driving golf cart, the researchers tested the Kinect depth camera against a laser rangefinder and stereo cameras. By operating the vehicle on a test road that contained stairs, ramps, and curbs, they discovered that the Kinect sensor outperformed the other two devices in detecting and correctly discerning nearby, close-to-the-ground objects.”
It goes without saying that Google has no intention to collaborate with Microsoft or to turn to its tech to improve its own self-driving cars, but with Redmond becoming more actively involved in this sector, Kinect could arrive in vehicles sooner than everyone might be tempted to believe.