Bill Gates may be a car enthusiast, but he realizes that it’s not all fun. “If like me you travel by car, think about the time you lose driving”he commented recently, in a blog post about an experience in a self-driving car on the streets of London.
The Microsoft founder was in the British metropolis recently and took the opportunity to meet Wayve, an autonomous mobility startup. This is supported by Bill Gates’ group. Founded in the same city in 2017, it is working on another approach for the driverless car: artificial intelligence.
It’s a “against the tide” approach, confided its founder Alex Kendall last year, when the company passed the billion dollar valuation. Today, Bill Gates came to promote them. Product placement in a YouTube video and related blog post. “We have made tremendous progress in autonomous vehicles in recent years” he said.
According to his vision, Bill Gates predicts: “I think we will reach a tipping point in the next decade”, he said. An emergency to reduce the hassle of transport, but also to reduce traffic problems and reduce inequalities. The man thinks in particular that this will improve accessibility for people with reduced mobility.
“Even when the technology is perfected, people may not feel comfortable in a car without a steering wheel at the start. But I think the benefits will convince them”, added in comment on his blog the billionaire. During its test in London, on the other hand, a female driver was placed behind the wheel for safety.
“It is I imagine the simplest job in the world”quipped Bill Gates as he got into the car and sat next to the driver. “Let’s go get some fish and chips”he added, finally to please all the British.
The technologies of Bill Gates’ car
Sitting in the back, the CEO of the startup Wayve added some details on the autonomous technology based on artificial intelligence. “We don’t tell him how to drive, with a list of rules and a map”he said, even if the route on the streets of London was indeed selected upstream and that there is no doubt that the company has already tested the car on this route many times.
“Technology interprets its environment, understands the context, and makes the safest decisions to get through each situation. And the best thing about it is that the machine will learn from its experiences and retain much more complex situations than an engineer could try to program. If you have to tell the car how to drive, in every situation that may arise, you will never cover them all”he added.
The video remains only a promotional video, in which we would have liked to see in more detail the traffic situations crossed. The rare times when the car is seen evolving in its environment, no risk is observed. One of the only situations where the car can be seen making a decision after scanning its surroundings is along a lane where there is a cyclist, moving at a speed that is neither too slow nor too fast.
Shortly after, at a crossroads, Bill Gates exclaimed that the route chosen by Wayve was to his liking one of the most complex. “I give credit for picking one of the toughest situations I’ve seen through a self-driving car”, he said. For him, on the other hand, the cost of such technologies and their need for further progress will not leave a chance for the autonomous car to arrive before the next decade.
Before that, autonomous public transport would be more easily envisaged.
