Waymo data supports self-driving benefits |
Self-driving technology companies aspire to make roads less dangerous. But figuring out whether they deliver on safety promises has proved vexing.
Researchers from Google self-driving subsidiary Waymo offered fresh clarity Wednesday. They unveiled new methods for making meaningful comparisons between the driving performances of humans and autonomous systems.
Those new methods show safety benefits in three locations where Waymo operates driverless service, the company said, with an 85 percent reduction in the rate of crashes with injuries and a 57 percent drop in the rate of crashes reported to police compared with human drivers.
"We have a significant effect," said Trent Victor, Waymo's director of safety research and best practices. "We have far fewer collisions than humans."
Waymo estimated 17 fewer overall injuries over the company's 7.1 million miles of driverless operations this year than if a human had driven the same distance.
— Pete Bigelow
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