What's the difference between Google and Tesla's self-driving technology?

Would you watch how a rice cooker cooks rice? You won't watch how a car runs in the future. Self-driving technology will be in our lives within 8 years. The question is, which one is better in self-driving technology, Google or Tesla?

On May 29, 2014, Google launched 100 self-driving car prototypes; and recently, Tesla also installed autopilots in its cars, and the two companies have crossed paths in the field of self-driving. So what are the similarities and differences between the two in terms of self-driving technology?

TeslaHead made a simple summary: the technical principles are similar - both use sensors and software to achieve autonomous driving. But in terms of their concepts, Google is more idealistic and directly points to the ultimate solution, while Tesla is more pragmatic and more feasible at this stage.

Google's self-driving car can be called a "fully self-driving car". This car has no square discs and no brakes. It relies entirely on sensors and software to drive autonomously. Google claims that it is very safe.

Tesla cars are equipped with "Autopilot" in addition to the existing driving system. In fact, the word "Autopilot" was first used on airplanes to refer to the automatic driving function of airplanes. However, no matter how powerful the function of the airplane's "Autopilot" is, there is always a pilot sitting there to supervise and back up.

Tesla's "semi-autonomous driving" is more like "supervised autonomous driving technology", just like the "Autopilot" function of an airplane, rather than completely handing over the control to sensors and software, and can switch to manual driving mode at any time. From the perspective of an ordinary consumer, Musk's concept should be more reliable than Google's. Because at this stage, there are still many bottlenecks to be overcome before autonomous driving can completely replace manual driving.

The biggest bottleneck is not hardware, but software technology - when a sensor detects an object, it is meaningful only after it is recognized by the corresponding software, just like when the eyes see an object, it must be transmitted through nerves to the brain for processing.

Therefore, Tesla will outsource the production of hardware such as radar and image recognition, but it needs to develop the recognition software itself, which is the most core technology.

Let’s talk about Google’s “fully autonomous car” again. Is it really as safe as it claims?

not necessarily.

First of all, its routes are all input in advance, but if a traffic light is suddenly added to these input routes, then this fully autonomous driving car may not be able to stop in time at this traffic light, because the location of this traffic light is not recorded in its program.

At this time, the car's sensor needs to temporarily recognize the newly added traffic light, otherwise it will greatly increase the driving risk.

In addition, extreme weather such as heavy rain, heavy snow, and heavy fog also pose huge challenges to autonomous driving technology.

There is another serious flaw in Google's self-driving car - the ability to identify obstacles. It cannot distinguish whether the obstacle on the road is a stone or a plastic bag. As long as it is an obstacle, it will deliberately avoid it. But if there is a plastic bag in front, it would look stupid.

Tesla fans believe that fully automatic driving is the ultimate solution and will definitely be realized. Now we don’t watch how a rice cooker cooks rice, and in the future we won’t watch how a car runs. Google and Tesla, two emerging technology giants, have both focused on driverless technology, which undoubtedly boosts people’s confidence. After all, for a mature field, if you want to revolutionize or subvert it, you must pay extremely high market costs (large-scale promotion costs, long market cultivation), and even policy games at the government level (such as amending the traffic bill). It is not something that a small company can do to chew on such a hard bone.

Musk revealed in an interview that Tesla is also developing fully autonomous driving technology, and the progress is very good. It can be realized within 5 years. After 3 years of government review, it can be used on a large scale in about 8 years. By then, Google's technology may have matured.

Tesla fans have another piece of tidbit to share about these two companies: Musk and Google co-founder Page are good friends. Page once joked in an interview that he would like to donate all his property to Musk after his death because he thinks Musk is a man with great dreams and hopes that his money can help Musk realize his dreams. In fact, Google is indeed one of Tesla's earliest investors.

Pursuing profitability is a necessary means to achieve goals in the commercial market, but it is never the goal of a first-class innovative company. Tefan believes that these two companies have this quality and can achieve more great goals, not to mention autonomous driving technology.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.