Waymo is set to launch a public ride sharing service later this year, with the pilot program hitting the one year mark last month. The Alphabet division today announced its latest milestone of autonomously driving eight million miles since its inception as Google’s Self-Driving Car project.
CEO John Krafcik shared the figure this morning, with the latest million mark reached in just over a month, or approximately 40 days. For comparison, Waymo’s vehicles reached five million miles in February after four months. It took two months in April and June to reach six and seven million, respectively. Started in 2009, the first million took six years.
Today, it only takes the company one month, with Krafcik noting 25K miles logged per day in real-world experience. Meanwhile, the Alphabet company has billions of more miles driven in a computer simulation called “Carcraft.”
Waymo’s fleet is rapidly expanding with an order for 62,000 electric Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans in May after a January order for thousands more. Meanwhile, the company is beginning to test the Jaguar I-Pace and expected to add 20,000 of those premium SUVs to its fleet in the “next few years.”
With a ride-sharing service later this year, the Alphabet bet is widely considered to have the lead in self-driving technology.
Waymo has self-driven 8 million miles on public roads, now at a rate of 25K miles per day. This real-world experience, plus over 5 billion miles in simulation, is how we're building the world’s most experienced driver. pic.twitter.com/VkfmLxwi2c
— John Krafcik (@johnkrafcik) July 20, 2018
Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news:
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments