By Trent Victor, Director of Security Analysis & Greatest Practices, Waymo —
The trail to Imaginative and prescient Zero requires decreasing extreme crashes and enhancing the protection of these most in danger. Our newest analysis paper exhibits that the Waymo Driver is making vital strides in each areas. By decreasing probably 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 totally different crash sorts in comparison with human drivers. It additionally presents new insights into Waymo’s optimistic affect on critical harm crash charges.
Kinds 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 explanation for extreme street hurt for human drivers. This discount may be largely attributed to the Waymo Driver’s capacity to detect and appropriately reply to automobiles operating a purple mild.
- 85% fewer crashes with suspected critical or worse accidents. Constructing on our earlier analysis, which demonstrated Waymo’s vital reductions throughout all accidents mixed, the brand new research supplies early proof for comparable advantages in critical accidents alone. The outcomes are statistically vital however as a result of critical harm instances are, happily, uncommon, they’re primarily based on a small variety of occasions. We’ll proceed to watch outcomes and achieve higher confidence as we accumulate extra miles.
These findings add to the rising physique of knowledge that the Waymo Driver is decreasing probably the most harmful crash sorts, contributing to safer roadways, and pushing ahead a imaginative and prescient of zero visitors deaths and critical accidents on our roads. Whereas this specific analysis didn’t account for crash contribution, a earlier research led by the insurance coverage firm Swiss Re demonstrated that the Waymo Driver’s optimistic affect is much more vital when contribution is taken into consideration.
“It’s thrilling to see the actual optimistic affect that Waymo is making on the streets of America as we proceed to increase,” stated Mauricio Peña, Waymo’s Chief Security Officer. “This analysis reinforces the rising proof that the Waymo Driver is taking part in an important position in decreasing critical crashes and defending all street customers.”
“It’s encouraging to see real-world knowledge displaying Waymo outperforming human drivers in terms of security. Fewer crashes and fewer accidents — particularly for individuals strolling and biking — is precisely the form of progress we wish to see from autonomous automobiles,” — stated Jonathan Adkins, Chief Govt 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 look ahead to strengthening our security knowledge, assessing the long-term affect on street security, and serving to to advance conversations amongst researchers, policymakers, and security teams.
We look ahead to persevering with this dialog and dealing towards a future the place critical visitors accidents, one of many greatest causes of demise within the U.S, are dramatically diminished. For these occupied with a deeper dive into the info and methodology, we encourage you to discover the full research, and our rolling security knowledge hub.
About Waymo
Waymo is an autonomous driving expertise firm with a mission to make it secure and simple for individuals and issues to get the place they’re going. Since our begin because the Google Self-Driving Automotive Mission in 2009, Waymo has been centered on constructing the World’s Most Skilled Driver to enhance the world’s entry to mobility whereas saving hundreds 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