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Don't Worry, Driverless Cars Are Learning From Grand Theft Auto

  • Video game is among simulators training auto-piloting software
  • ‘Just relying on data from the roads is not practical’
Sensors sit on the exterior of an autonomous vehicle developed by Oxbotica, using Selenium autonomous control software, outside the SMMT Connected 2017 conference on autonomous vehicles in London, U.K., on Thursday, March 30, 2017. In a worst case scenario, motor insurance premiums could fall by as much as 80 percent in some mature markets by 2040 because of new technologies, changes to mobility, regulation and companies being incentivized to roll out fleets of shared andautonomous vehicles.

Sensors sit on the exterior of an autonomous vehicle developed by Oxbotica, using Selenium autonomous control software, outside the SMMT Connected 2017 conference on autonomous vehicles in London, U.K., on Thursday, March 30, 2017. In a worst case scenario, motor insurance premiums could fall by as much as 80 percent in some mature markets by 2040 because of new technologies, changes to mobility, regulation and companies being incentivized to roll out fleets of shared andautonomous vehicles.

Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
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In the race to the autonomous revolution, developers have realized there aren’t enough hours in a day to clock the real-world miles needed to teach cars how to drive themselves. Which is why Grand Theft Auto V is in the mix.

The blockbuster video game is one of the simulation platforms researchers and engineers increasingly rely on to test and train the machines being primed to take control of the family sedan. Companies from Ford Motor Co. to Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo may boast about putting no-hands models on the market in three years, but there’s a lot still to learn about drilling algorithms in how to respond when, say, a mattress falls off a truck on the freeway.