Virtual world lets AI cars learn to drive

It may look like a video game, but the new computer simulation developed by a team of researchers in Barcelona could one day train autonomous cars to be better drivers. Called'Synthia,' the program creates a virtual city complete with pedestrians, traffic signs and other components of an urban environment, automatically annotated at the pixel-level. This allows for a more efficient method of training AI systems, and can be used to teach them to recognize and behave in response to the less predictable aspects of city driving, like a nearby cyclist or adverse weather. A new computer simulation could one day train autonomous cars to be better drivers. Called'Synthia,' the program creates a virtual city complete with pedestrians, traffic signs and other components of an urban environment, automatically annotated at the pixel-level Researchers hope programs like Synthia can be used to improve the abilities of AI to recognize different objects, to make autonomous driving more reliable.