Does google pod cars set off the ALP?

[driggett]

I was at the corner of 237 and el Camino in Mountain view tonight around 9pm and was stopped, second car in and all of a sudden the alp went off. I looked around and then shut it off after 4 seconds. No cops but directly in front of me in the turn lane was a google pod car. The Google pod car was across the street in the left hand turn lane. Does self driving cars with the bulb on top cause the alp to go off?
Thanks,
Chris



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[Fast n Frivolous]

Maybe pull the stats of your ALP and see what gun it alerted to? I'm sure AL would like to know what the PPS (if any) these self drive cars use so that as more hit the roads there would be less falsing.

[jdong]

In my experience they set off Poliscan alerts pretty frequently. In your state you don't need to enable Poliscan.

You're unlikely to figure out the pulse rate since they use a spinning LIDAR turret like a barcode scanner and you are simply catching random scatter from that.

[sfpd]

Yep, a 3 versions I've encountered (Prius, Lexus RX, and Google pod car) have set off a Poliscan alert on my system. Happy to provide logs if that would be useful for ALP devs.

[radargeek]

I'm guessing there aren't enough of those Google cars around for the falsing to be a real issue.

[awj223]

I'm guessing there aren't enough of those Google cars around for the falsing to be a real issue.

You've never driven in Mountain View, have you?

[BestRadarDetectors]

You've never driven in Mountain View, have you?

I have never seen one of these cars and have no idea what they spew. If you are not in MD (The only place with Poliscan in the US) you can turn Poliscan off.

[awj223]

I have never seen one of these cars and have no idea what they spew. If you are not in MD (The only place with Poliscan in the US) you can turn Poliscan off.

It's got a spinning thing on top that spews LIDAR in all directions as it rotates.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsaES--OTzM

Falses are going to be a problem when these cars come to MD.

[jdong]

I have never seen one of these cars and have no idea what they spew. If you are not in MD (The only place with Poliscan in the US) you can turn Poliscan off.

I've also confirmed they very reliably set off a Poliscan alert on the ALPs. I'd advise those in the Bay Area to turn Poliscan off.

[curmudgeon]

I wonder if the google cars jam at least some LIDARs.

[jdong]

I'll have to try clocking one.


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[curmudgeon]

I'll have to try clocking one.


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I'm guessing, but I'd suspect it might be more prone to interfere with older fixed rate LIDARs than newer or VPR units.

[jdong]

I'm guessing, but I'd suspect it might be more prone to interfere with older fixed rate LIDARs than newer or VPR units.

I suspect that anything which throws LIDAR pulses will probably trigger the jam indicator on various DALA/DET guns, even if they don't actually cause a jam. But the turret seems to spin pretty rapidly and probably only throw a couple pulses your way. That combined with the reflections are probably enough to trigger a poliscan alert, but I doubt it'll do much more than that.

[curmudgeon]

Will await your reports. IF it interferes w/LIDARs, it could be a way to get rid of this system

[awj223]

Will await your reports. IF it interferes w/LIDARs, it could be a way to get rid of this system

How so? Nobody cares if anything jams LIDAR guns. It would have to present a safety risk by actually jamming LCC or CAS.

[awj223]

BestRadarDetectors: Would you be interested getting some logs from the Google cars to see if the ALPs can be programmed to filter them out? I might be able to get a friend to drive one while I log with my ALPs.

[BestRadarDetectors]

BestRadarDetectors: Would you be interested getting some logs from the Google cars to see if the ALPs can be programmed to filter them out? I might be able to get a friend to drive one while I log with my ALPs.

If you want but if its laser is spinning at the same speed of Poliscan it might not be possible. Filtering on the ALP is really tight as it is. Are you running the Poliscan filter on?

[awj223]

If you want but if its laser is spinning at the same speed of Poliscan it might not be possible. Filtering on the ALP is really tight as it is. Are you running the Poliscan filter on?

Yes, and I don't have falsing issues. But I'm curious about what the pulse rate of those things is. At some point those Google cars are going to drive where Poliscans are used, or Poliscans are going to be brought to an area where the Google cars are driven. Then what?

[BestRadarDetectors]

Yes, and I don't have falsing issues. But I'm curious about what the pulse rate of those things is. At some point those Google cars are going to drive where Poliscans are used, or Poliscans are going to be brought to an area where the Google cars are driven. Then what?

If it happens to be the same pulse rate then you deal with false alerts.. If they are different they can be filtered. Poliscan is something that is difficult to detect quick enough and usually fractions of a second matter so you cant filter much more on it without risking a Poliscan live hit from getting through.

[awj223]

If it happens to be the same pulse rate then you deal with false alerts.. If they are different they can be filtered. Poliscan is something that is difficult to detect quick enough and usually fractions of a second matter so you cant filter much more on it without risking a Poliscan live hit from getting through.

There has to be something you can do to filter out stuff with the same pulse rate. For example, you can look at pulse duration in addition to pulse rate. It is highly unlikely that the duration and rate of two distinct devices would both be the same.

[RedRocket]

There has to be something you can do to filter out stuff with the same pulse rate. For example, you can look at pulse duration in addition to pulse rate. It is highly unlikely that the duration and rate of two distinct devices would both be the same.I rather doubt pulse width can be determined by the AL-P, PRR is a normal function.

[awj223]

If it happens to be the same pulse rate then you deal with false alerts.. If they are different they can be filtered. Poliscan is something that is difficult to detect quick enough and usually fractions of a second matter so you cant filter much more on it without risking a Poliscan live hit from getting through.

That's the unit Google uses.
http://radarandlaserforum.com/showthread.php/8780-SELLING-Velodyne-HDL-64E-(2-Available)

And their website (datasheet) says: 300 RPM - 1200 RPM spin rate (user selectable)
But it also says there are 4 groups of 16 emitters. Not sure if more than one beam per revolution could sweep past the ALP sensors and would be detected, but the ALP sensors are so sensitive, it seems possible.

Maybe AL needs to acquire one of these units for analysis so they can filter out the falses? I heard that Google introduced some cars in Dallas, so they're spreading. Now they're putting them in Washington state too: http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2016/02/03/google-to-test-self-driving-cars-in-washington-state/