What's up everybody? Koiwire here with a
special edition of CNN 10. Today we're
taking a deep dive into the world of
artificial intelligence and self-driving
cars. Today we're going to Curiosity Lab
in Peach Tree Corners, Georgia to
experience this tech firsthand. This is
my first time in a Whimo. Let's go.
You could call this one of the most
advanced smart cities in the world.
Tomorrow's technologies being tested and
created today. The color printer was
invented here in Technology Park. The
Haze modem, too. Now, autonomous or
self-driving vehicles are being steered
to new frontiers. Air package delivery
systems via drones. Mobile delivery
robots tested and perfected. Where are
we? What is this place? I feel like I
stepped into the future.
>> This is Curiosity Lab. We are a
nonprofit just inside the city of Peach
Tree Corners. And what we do is we help
companies test and deploy their
technology on public infrastructure. So
that meant always sounds super cool, but
it is. I mean, think about all the stuff
that public infrastructure entails,
right? Roadways, intersections, even
airspace. Um, a lot of different
technologies work on those things.
>> And that's very important because we're
living at a time where we're seeing more
and more of it, hearing more and more
about it. They might be taxi cabs that
are flying through this city. So how
well all do you help companies prepare
us for that type of future?
>> Sure. So when it comes to an environment
like what is the ideal environment for
testing? So you always start in a closed
environment, right? There's there's no
things coming in in terms of variables.
You want to make sure the product works.
So in the case of a vehicle on a
roadway, that would be like a closed
track. But we also know that from there,
how do you get into an urban
environment? How do you get into a real
city? And you've got to have that middle
ground. We have a closed three mile loop
inside a 500 acre ecosystem so that
cars, technology, drones, whatever it
is, can test in a real environment where
there's real pedestrians, real cars,
real people, real intersections. So you
can start to get the data and learn how
these technologies work in real time
with real elements so that you know,
hey, we're ready to get into the city.
>> I just saw a robot fly by. I don't know
what it was, but
>> oh my gosh, I think it might have been
Cheetah. She's a cute little thing.
Basically, she's a helping hand
essentially. She is a a robot that
follows a subject in front of it. So,
it's not a self-driving one. It's not
like it's doing delivery, but it's more
like, you know, a robotic dog that
follows you everywhere.
>> You don't need to carry a backpack
anymore.
>> It's exactly what it is. It's a rolling
robotic backpack. You open up the uh vat
inside of it, and you know, they have
different inserts. I mean, you can make
it follow you like a tailgate. Um, but,
you know, it also increases
accessibility for things like disabled
folk or even elderly and, you know,
walkable communities if you're at the
airport and you need help carrying
stuff. Um, so it's cool. The fun fact
there is that its design was based off
of the droids in Star Wars. So they're
they're quite cute, I think.
>> Now you're speaking my language. Where's
my lightsaber? I feel cars whizzing
behind me. So tell me what's happening
here. What are we seeing? What are we
learning from what we're seeing?
>> Yeah, absolutely. So we talk about, you
know, the roadway. Um that is a very
loaded thing to think about. There's so
many things going on at all different
times on the roadway. And as drivers,
you know, we learn to get used to these
things. You learn when someone's going
to cut in front of you. You learn how to
interact with different lights and
different signals and different signs.
You know, what we're doing here is we're
using uh cameras and we're putting
analytics over those cameras to show you
what's happening in here. So, um this
can be a forum of AI, right? So, it
could be doing things like object
detection. As you can see here, it's
looking at vehicle vehicle. It could
clock a, you know, a bicyclist or a
pedestrian, which we're seeing a couple
pedestrians come right there. So, it
says unknown and that's a part of
testing, right? Is that, you know, it's
still learning. It says person now as
it's getting closer to the camera.
>> Um, but that's part of it, right? Is
there are times where a truck comes
through and it and you know, it might
say person and you're like, well, that's
definitely not a person. But that's why
you need the testing environment so they
can train their AI models to do better.
>> Okay. So, we've spoken about the cities,
the roadways, the intersections of
tomorrow.
Also, there will be the cars of tomorrow
that work better with that. And I
understand there's a garage where we can
maybe check out one of these cars. Put
me to work.
>> All right, let's do it. Let's go.
>> The company testing out their fleet of
autonomous vehicles at Curiosity Lab
during our visit is called May Mobility.
These cars use similar technology to the
brands we may be familiar with like
Whimo. But this company is particularly
interested in making AVs that are more
accessible for passengers who use
wheelchairs, scooters, or need other
accommodations.
>> In order for an autonomous vehicle to
work, you have to have a bunch of
different technology, right? So, you've
got to have the hardware, and I'll walk
through that in a minute. And you have
to have the software, which is pretty
much the brains of the technology. So
the AI component, you're using
human-like reasoning, which is basically
the software component, and combining it
with all the things you're gathering
from the hardware so that the technology
can make thousands and thousands and
thousands of scenarios and decisions in
real time.
>> Mhm.
>> So you'll see here different
technologies. A lot of people say this
looks like a cup holder. It is not. It's
actually technology.
And you'll see cameras here and LAR
sensors. We have a total of nine cameras
all around the vehicle. And then we have
five LARs and radars. The other big guy
here, the top hat, is basically um our
largest LAR. And that is able to look
out further away so that we can see
what's happening in real time.
>> While autonomous vehicles are relatively
new, lidar has actually been around for
quite some time. It was developed in the
1960s and it was actually used on the
Apollo space missions to map out the
surface of the moon. It uses lasers,
shoots them out everywhere to measure
distances and create an incredibly
accurate picture of an environment.
Here's how it works. The system fires
millions of laser pulses
every second in every direction. They
bounce off surrounding objects to create
a detailed 3D picture of its
surroundings. That includes everything
from buildings to other cars, people,
and animals. It's similar in a way to
echolocation, the system used by bats,
whales, and dolphins to navigate and to
hunt prey. But this system swaps the
sound waves for light. You may have seen
the rapidly spinning mechanisms on some
of these autonomous cars. Well, that
allows them to have a 360° field of view
to help eliminate blind spots and safely
navigate the world around them.
Pop quiz hot shot. Self-driving cars
often use lidar to scan surroundings.
What does lidar stand for? Light
detection and ranging. Laser
identification and radar. Light
identification and response. Looking
into dangers around the route. Answer is
light detection and ranging. Lidar is a
remote sensing method used to examine
the surface of the earth. So what you
want to do is you want to use a
combination of historical data, right,
which it's accumulated over time based
on different locations. So for example,
let's say you're in Georgia, hot
weather, right? You're in Phoenix,
Arizona, hot but dry weather, and you're
in Michigan where you have snow. So, you
want to be able to take all of those
elements and have the vehicle learn from
all the different weather conditions so
that when it's a location, if we happen
to get snow in Georgia this year, the
vehicle will know what to do.
>> But I think about, you know, my
daughters when they're old enough to be
going places,
I think that I would feel comfortable
with them being in a vehicle all to
themselves. The tech is only going to
get better, right? And you would think
as there are more and more autonomous
vehicles on the roadways that are now
communicating with each other, they're
like computer brains communicating with
other drivers. And so you would think
that would be even safer than kind of
guessing and wondering what a human
might do.
>> There's a lot of um transparency and
visibility into a vehicle. you have
cameras everywhere and um so you you can
see what's happening and so for them in
a lot of ways they're probably a lot
safer you know in the vehicle we all
know that you know last year I think
there were over 40,000 deaths in the US
from um accidents road accidents it's
things like you know falling asleep
texting and driving intoxication so all
of those things can happen you know with
with your
right for the future. So, and I would
argue that for the future and maybe even
today that these vehicles are for, you
know, safe and hopefully that's their
future. And then you've got to think
too, there's others as well. I mean, you
have kids, right? But there's um people
with disabilities, great for them. And
then, you know, people who are elderly,
right? They can come in and use those
vehicles. In um Minnesota, we have um
one of our biggest groups of riders are
seniors and the middle school kids
because they
>> not seniors in high school.
>> No, senior citizens. Yes, that's senior
middle schoolers and middle schoolers
because you know a lot of times they
don't have a way to get home um you know
after after school activities and so
this is a way for them to do it safely.
>> What do you think? I want you to press
pause for a moment. Discuss with your
friends if a self-driving car service
was widely available in your city or
town. Maybe they already are. Would you
use them? Would you trust AI over
getting your own driver's license? What
are the risks? What are the benefits?
Thanks for taking a ride with me today
on this special edition of CNN 10. I
learned a lot today. I hope you did,
too. Be kind, stay curious, and rise up.