BUFFALO, N.Y. — You likely have seen those Google Earth vehicles with cameras taking pictures of streets and homes in Western New York.
But now there is another Google-related vehicle doing something similar as Waymo self-driving cars are here for various test drives and to help these autonomous vehicles learn about the Buffalo road grid.
A California-based spokesperson for Waymo, which is tied to Google, did not offer any interviews but says a "handful" of the white cars are here in Buffalo this month, learning more about Buffalo streets and local expressways.
Fortunately at the University at Buffalo North Campus, autonomous vehicle research has been underway since 2015 with Ollie the self-driving bus and even a Lincoln SUV.
And so we found Dr. Stephen Still who is a professor in the School of Engineering to explain that machine learning technology. "It basically tries to simulate the human brain. There's a concept called neural networks."
Still says researchers were focusing on such cutting edge technology for "machine learning" and then "when that break through happened it allowed autonomous vehicles to be a reality."
Still explained further how those vehicles work.
"So very sophisticated sensors that are involved. Something called LIDAR which sends many laser beams out and paints a 3 - D depiction of the landscape and very quickly picks up on any sort of moving objects," Still said.
That means leave the driving to them, or "it" in this case, even though these current test drives in New York State have a person behind the wheel for safety's sake.
On that subject of safety Still said: "They published their own papers that shows there was a stretch they operated a million miles without a safety driver and had a really impressive safety record."
However, NBC News reports some self-driving vehicle accidents in the state of California where they operate without drivers for pick up service like Uber. And a report showed that sometimes the autonomous vehicles operated by the separate Cruise firm which is a subsidiary of General Motors can in essence get confused and just pull over.
In a NBC News video, Cruise vehicles are actually shown causing traffic issues despite programming for blocked construction lanes or emergency vehicles.
But there's also the roadway challenge of "Buffalo weather." 2 On Your Side asked Still, "Is that something that throws a curve to Waymo? Or can it handle snow and ice and what have you?"
Still replied: "Yeah. So of course Waymo and the other private companies, they want to be safe. I think Waymo wants to test different degrees of snow, and when it's safe and when it isn't. But ultimately, if it's not safe, they will park."
Questions have been raised about liability, and it seems many legal experts feel insurance would apply.
A City of Buffalo spokesman said autonomous vehicles are not actually controlled, as yet, by state law, so they are not yet allowed to operate in the state. A certain allowance was made for UB's smaller scale, on-campus research program.
Again, the vehicles currently mapping streets in Buffalo are operated by a human driver. New York State Police apparently have oversight.
We also know the New York State Bar Association under UB Law School Dean Aviva Abramovsky actually set up a state task force to study autonomous vehicles in 2019. A similar state legislature effort failed to pass in 2020. Current efforts are under review.