New safety research from Waymo finds that its driverless cars “led to a significant reduction in the rates of police-reported and injury-causing crashes compared to human drivers.”
This means that over the 7.1 million miles Waymo drove, there were an estimated 17 fewer injuries and 20 fewer police-reported crashes compared to if human drivers with the benchmark crash rate would have driven the same distance in the areas we operate.
This published paper compares Waymo crash rates to that of human drivers. It specifically looks at “7.14 million fully autonomous miles driven 24/7 through the end of October 2023” in Phoenix and San Francisco, where the Waymo One ride-hailing service is operational, as well as Los Angeles, where public “Tour” testing is underway.
Accidents cover all crashes, “regardless of the Waymo vehicle’s role in the crash, and with any amount of property damage.” The comparison is to “relevant human crash rates resulting in police reports, injuries, and/or property damage.”
The two main findings are:
- “An 85% reduction or 6.8 times lower crash rate involving any injury, from minor to severe and fatal cases (0.41 incidence per million miles for the Waymo Driver vs 2.78 for the human benchmark)”
- “A 57% reduction or 2.3 times lower police-reported crash rate (2.1 incidence per million miles for the Waymo Driver vs. 4.85 for the human benchmark)”
Waymo’s blog goes into a second published paper and the creation of a human crash benchmark to allow for this comparison. More broadly, the Alphabet company wants “international standardization for valid analysis of AV crash data.”
More on Waymo:
- ‘Waymo One Tour’ lets you take an autonomous ride in Los Angeles
- Waymo robotaxis are now available through Uber in first city
- Using Google Cast in a car is cool, I guess the self-driving Waymo was too
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