

Google’s self-driving car will use road-based QR codes to get directions - vdondeti
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/109887-google-patent-self-driving-car

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mike-cardwell
"In one scenario, it appears, a driver is looking for a parking space and
drives over a giant QR code on a street or in a parking garage. The QR code
might either have exact directions to a specific parking spot, or it might
link to a parking garage database of which parking slots are open."

This strikes me as ripe for abuse.

~~~
patrickod
Surely the technical part is no more open to abuse than normal parking signs
in cities listing the amount of available spaces in certain car parks.

The QR codes would contain very little information I would imagine but rather
a key that is used by the car as an argument for further operations. Leaving
all the directional data on the road would be way too easy to abuse.

~~~
mike-cardwell
You're thinking too small.

"it might link to a parking garage database of which parking slots are open"

Imagine creating a QR code, (or copying one that already exists) which tells
the car to fetch information from <http://your.competitor.example.com/>. Then
imagine going out late at night and sticking it on a busy motorway.

DOS by traffic.

Also. You better hope that your car doesn't have any vulnerabilities that can
be abused by a specially crafted QR code, or by fetching specially crafted
data that a QR code prompts it to fetch.

~~~
VBprogrammer
You're thinking way too tin hat.

While we're there we better do something about all those people using radio
jammers to down auto-landing aircraft.

Also, you better hope their are no vulnerabilities in the automatically driven
mono-rail / train system you are riding in.

These type of issues are going to be discussed to the end of the earth but I
can't wait to see driverless cars make their way from the lab to the car
dealer.

As far as introduction, I would bet these features will be added to high-end
luxury models and quite possibly initially limited to main roads (motorways /
interstates) where the chances of encountering something unusual are lower.
With the addition of a fair splattering of warning labels.

~~~
nitrogen
Quote from _VBprogrammer_ :

 _You're thinking way too tin hat._

I very, very rarely resort to _ad hominem_ , least of all on HN, but your
nickname says it all (if indeed VB refers to Visual Basic). Far too many
computer problems of yore were created by VB programmers not being nearly "tin
hat" enough. When engineering systems which can damage other systems or cause
bodily harm, one's responsibility is to anticipate, mitigate, and prevent the
worst case scenario to the maximum extent possible.

~~~
VBprogrammer
Well VBprogrammer is a moniker I've used since I was 14. I now work for a
company building websites which have thousands of hits a minute, require PCI
compliance and use a variety of tools, none of which are Visual Basic.

Given that you resorted to ad hominem I assume you have no other reasonable
arguments against what I said.

~~~
nitrogen
I understand the desire to keep an old handle. Regarding your last paragraph,
I believe my second sentence stands on its own, and that others have said
anything else I might care to express. Basically, with something that has the
potential to maim and kill (like self-driving cars), I expect engineers to
take every precaution.

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savramescu
I guess Google learned from the patent war on smartphones and they'll be
better prepared against the auto industry.

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CosmicShadow
Good thing it doesn't snow down there!

~~~
nkassis
The pavement could be heated only where the QR code is located.

~~~
nitrogen
...thus creating a patch of ice around the QR code as the melted snow
refreezes.

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alexhawdon
I suspect this is simply one of many self-driving car patents Google will
file, but it's fun to speculate:

Technological hurdles aside, the catch-22 situation is that without much
evidence the technology works there will never be public acceptance and
legislation for it to be used on the roads. Perhaps Google plan to initially
market the system as some sort of beefed-up parking assist - one where you
leave your car at the entrance to a car park and collect it from there later.
I'm not lawyer, but car parks != public roads, so different laws should apply.

Obviously, nobody would pay loads of extra cash just for that feature, but
maybe Google would be willing to subsidise it in the hope that it gets them
over the public-acceptance hurdle as people would start getting used to cars
driving themselves around without incident and start to trust the technology.
It would also build up thousands of hours of evidence of the safety of the
system, which the legislators are going to want to see before they okay it for
general driving.

Personally, I can't wait until self-driving cars are a reality. It's going to
revolutionise transport. :)

~~~
JanezStupar
Probably autopilots will be sold and marketed as glorified cruise control. To
be used only with a driver behind the wheel. And then they will gradually get
accepted to the scale that it will be silly not to have a full permit for
autonomous vehicles.

~~~
alexhawdon
Possibly. Though they'd either have to build in something to monitor the
driver or accept that they're just going to tune out and read the paper/go to
sleep.

Could be a potential way to bring it to market that keeps the insurers happy
though. Make the driver 'promise' to pay attention and should an accident
happen and the driver didn't take over then the insurer doesn't pay.

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obtu
This was discussed a few days ago:
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3355876>

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nextparadigms
Can't they just use NFC?

~~~
DasIch
This is a patent and not a detailed report on what they intend to use or are
implementing.

Strategically speaking the optimal case is a patent to cover the process of
sending directions to a car, including everything needed to request them,
using any means.

Everyone who produces cars will have to implement some form of that at some
point to stay relevant, which makes this a very valuable patent.

~~~
SoftwareMaven
Sad that a patent could have so many ways to be implemented. Patents are
supposed to be implementable. Google could hide a ton of trade secrets behind
this patent.

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jimbobimbo
Cue in "drive-by buffer overrun".

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maeon3
Can I tell the robot car to run over a pedestrian if he has an ak-47 pointed
at me and he is on the curb? A self defense situational awareness algorithm
that understands kill or be killed?

