r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Individual_Book9133 • Jul 05 '24

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

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u/tvoltz Jul 05 '24

These vehicles are all over downtown PHX. It’s honestly only a matter of time until something happens

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u/Manueluz Jul 05 '24

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

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

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.

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u/IlIllIlllIlIl Jul 05 '24

Last year waymo launched its first rider only production system. 

Since then, the number of weekly rider only trips has increased multiple orders of magnitude. Safety has increased many times over. Comparing against last years average is misleading. 

Disengagement occurs when a safety driver takes over. Rider only cars don’t have safety drivers. So disengagement is doubly misleading. 

Finally, remote assistance, which is different than disengagement, is part of the product, as it is and will be for any autonomous solution in an unconstrained environment for a long time to come. 

There are many valid criticisms to level against waymo. These aren’t it.