I am?wrong, sensors are cleaned while the vehicle is operatinghttps://jalopnik.com/video-shows-driver ... 1823970417
This is a great example of why I think self-driving cars for everyone are a lot further off than we think. The idea that there is someone always behind the wheel to take over in case of emergency is a tremendously flawed one. Whenever you are driving a vehicle, you (should) be much more focused on what is going on...because you control every movement, you are generally engaged nonstop.
It is not realistic to expect people to maintain concentration on the road in front of them nonstop whenever they are not involved in the operation of the vehicle. Attention spans are bad enough as they are, but if you had to sit there for a long period of time without actually doing anything, your mind is going to wander like it would if you were sitting on the bus. There are too many judgment call situations that require human reflexes and decision-making, even if humans often make the wrong decision, IMO.
I think it will be the cleaning and maintenance issues that keep them from mainstream for a very long time. High cost of repair and you have to clean them like every day so the sensors work.
http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/22/technol ... index.html
Startup Seeva is developing similar technology to clean autonomous vehicles' sensors. Seeva already offers a system that heats washer fluid to as hot as 160 degrees, and sprays it on surfaces to clean bugs, dirt or ice.
But because autonomous vehicles can have dozens of sensors, Seeva CEO Diane Lansinger doesn't imagine products like this will be able to clean every camera, radar or LIDAR, a laser sensor that most experts see as essential for self-driving vehicles.
"For self-driving technology to scale, we can't have engineers paid $150,000 a year, running around the vehicles and wiping them down," Lansinger said. "It's going to be quite awhile before we get away from the manual care."