> Richer data does not mean better data. It does not mean more actionable data either.
How actionable you make it depends on how good your engineers are. Diverse input data is definitely more actionable than just RGB pixels from images.
> But maybe it's not. Maybe the additional flops required for sensor fusion would be more useful if given over to the planning part of the problem. After all, you don't have infinite cycles.
On the contrary, it reduces your compute requirements. For example, adding lidar means you are getting direct distance measurements instead of wasting compute cycles predicting distance using voxels. It's a much more effective use of compute.
You are getting direct distance measurements for some things, but not for everything, so you still need a system that is predicting distance using voxels.
LIDAR doesn't work great in the rain/snow, so you still need a system that is predicting distance using voxels.
Doesn't really sound like less compute to me. I feel like I'm repeating myself but again this is what I mean by scale matters. A self-driving system that performs better in perfect conditions is not even a good system if it doesn't work in the rain.
Which is the point the detractors of "fuse all the things" have been making. Don't get me wrong, I think probably those same detractors (e.g. Elon Musk) have also not been entirely intellectually honest with their arguments and have ulterior motives like cost savings and saving face, but that doesn't make the arguments wrong.
How actionable you make it depends on how good your engineers are. Diverse input data is definitely more actionable than just RGB pixels from images.
> But maybe it's not. Maybe the additional flops required for sensor fusion would be more useful if given over to the planning part of the problem. After all, you don't have infinite cycles.
On the contrary, it reduces your compute requirements. For example, adding lidar means you are getting direct distance measurements instead of wasting compute cycles predicting distance using voxels. It's a much more effective use of compute.