By Trent Victor, Director of Security Analysis & Greatest Practices, Waymo —
The trail to Imaginative and prescient Zero requires lowering extreme crashes and enhancing the security of these most in danger. Our newest analysis paper reveals that the Waymo Driver is making vital strides in each areas. By lowering essentially the most harmful crashes and offering higher safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and different susceptible street customers, Waymo is making streets safer in cities the place it operates.
The paper, accepted to be printed within the Visitors Damage Prevention Journal, expands on our Security Impression Hub analysis, offering a deeper evaluation of Waymo’s efficiency throughout 11 completely different crash varieties in comparison with human drivers. It additionally provides new insights into Waymo’s constructive influence on severe harm crash charges.
Forms of crashes used for the Waymo Driver and human benchmark comparisons
The analysis finds that, in comparison with human benchmarks over 56.7 million miles and no matter who was at fault, the Waymo Driver had:
- Safer interactions with susceptible street customers (VRUs) with substantial reductions in crashes involving accidents amongst pedestrians (92% discount), cyclists (82% discount), and motorcyclists (82% discount).
- 96% fewer injury-involving intersection crashes, which, in line with NHTSA, are a number one reason for extreme street hurt for human drivers. This discount may be largely attributed to the Waymo Driver’s potential to detect and appropriately reply to automobiles operating a crimson mild.
- 85% fewer crashes with suspected severe or worse accidents. Constructing on our earlier analysis, which demonstrated Waymo’s vital reductions throughout all accidents mixed, the brand new examine offers early proof for related advantages in severe accidents alone. The outcomes are statistically vital however as a result of severe harm circumstances are, thankfully, uncommon, they’re primarily based on a small variety of occasions. We are going to proceed to watch outcomes and achieve higher confidence as we accumulate extra miles.
These findings add to the rising physique of information that the Waymo Driver is lowering essentially the most harmful crash varieties, contributing to safer roadways, and pushing ahead a imaginative and prescient of zero visitors deaths and severe accidents on our roads. Whereas this specific analysis didn’t account for crash contribution, a earlier examine led by the insurance coverage firm Swiss Re demonstrated that the Waymo Driver’s constructive influence is much more vital when contribution is taken into consideration.
“It’s thrilling to see the actual constructive influence that Waymo is making on the streets of America as we proceed to broaden,” mentioned Mauricio Peña, Waymo’s Chief Security Officer. “This analysis reinforces the rising proof that the Waymo Driver is taking part in an important function in lowering severe crashes and defending all street customers.”
“It’s encouraging to see real-world information displaying Waymo outperforming human drivers with regards to security. Fewer crashes and fewer accidents — particularly for folks strolling and biking — is precisely the form of progress we need to see from autonomous automobiles,” — mentioned Jonathan Adkins, Chief Government Officer at Governors Freeway Security Affiliation.
Please go to https://youtu.be/nAuna_qzf6k if the embedded video participant doesn’t work.
As Waymo will increase in scale, we sit up for strengthening our security information, assessing the long-term influence on street security, and serving to to advance conversations amongst researchers, policymakers, and security teams.
We sit up for persevering with this dialog and dealing towards a future the place severe visitors accidents, one of many largest causes of dying within the U.S, are dramatically diminished. For these taken with a deeper dive into the info and methodology, we encourage you to discover the full examine, and our rolling security information hub.
About Waymo
Waymo is an autonomous driving expertise firm with a mission to make it secure and straightforward for folks and issues to get the place they’re going. Since our begin because the Google Self-Driving Automobile Challenge in 2009, Waymo has been centered on constructing the World’s Most Skilled Driver to enhance the world’s entry to mobility whereas saving 1000’s of lives now misplaced to visitors crashes. The Waymo Driver powers Waymo One, the world’s first absolutely driverless ride-hailing service, in addition to Waymo By way of, our trucking and native supply service. To this point, Waymo has pushed over 20 million miles autonomously on public roads throughout 25 U.S. cities and pushed over 15 billion miles in simulation. For extra data, please go to www.waymo.com.
Supply: Waymo