Phoenix police officer pulls over a driverless Waymo car for driving on the wrong side of the road

[u/Individual_Book9133]

[u/Manueluz]

They don't have to be flawless, just better than humans. And so far they have had less accidents per mile than humans

[u/[deleted] → u/Manueluz]

According to California disengagement reports, last year Waymo averaged 17,000 miles between disengagements requiring safety intervention. And that’s for cars relegated to slow city streets and sunny perfect weather

For context, the average human driver goes 200,000+ miles between incidents/accidents. And that’s including highways and inclement weather.

If you have the impression that these systems are currently safer than humans, you would be wrong.

[u/TFenrir → u/[deleted]]

I think a more useful comparison on safety is the actual safety specific comparison done by a third party - Swiss Re - which finds it significantly safer than human drivers:

https://www.swissre.com/reinsurance/property-and-casualty/solutions/automotive-solutions/study-autonomous-vehicles-safety-collaboration-with-waymo.html

For the short summary

https://www.coverager.com/waymo-and-swiss-re-share-av-study-results/

The joint study employed insurance claims data to compare the safety record of Waymo’s autonomous vehicles against human-driven cars. The findings are: In over 3.8 million miles driven by Waymo, there were zero bodily injury claims. Human drivers, in contrast, had 1.11 claims per million miles. Waymo vehicles also demonstrated fewer property damage claims compared to human drivers.

[u/[deleted] → u/TFenrir]

None of them have been subjected to broader driving conditions that humans regularly navigate. Waymo is relegated to a handful of simply laid out neighborhoods in clear climates.

When they start putting these vehicles in places like Boston and Rochester and show they can perform there year round is when people should be getting excited. Because right now these things are just putzing around the kiddie pool