By Trent Victor, Director of Security Analysis & Greatest Practices, Waymo —
The trail to Imaginative and prescient Zero requires lowering extreme crashes and enhancing the protection 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 weak street customers, Waymo is making streets safer in cities the place it operates.
The paper, accepted to be revealed within the Site visitors Damage Prevention Journal, expands on our Security Influence Hub analysis, offering a deeper evaluation of Waymo’s efficiency throughout 11 totally 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 weak 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 response to NHTSA, are a number one reason behind extreme street hurt for human drivers. This discount will be largely attributed to the Waymo Driver’s means to detect and appropriately reply to autos operating a purple 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 research supplies 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 acquire 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 research 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 increase,” mentioned Mauricio Peña, Waymo’s Chief Security Officer. “This analysis reinforces the rising proof that the Waymo Driver is taking part in a vital position in lowering severe crashes and defending all street customers.”
“It’s encouraging to see real-world information exhibiting Waymo outperforming human drivers in terms of security. Fewer crashes and fewer accidents — particularly for folks strolling and biking — is precisely the type of progress we wish to see from autonomous autos,” — 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 stay 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 stay up for persevering with this dialog and dealing towards a future the place severe visitors accidents, one of many greatest causes of loss of life within the U.S, are dramatically decreased. For these fascinated about a deeper dive into the info and methodology, we encourage you to discover the full research, and our rolling security information hub.
About Waymo
Waymo is an autonomous driving know-how firm with a mission to make it protected and straightforward for folks and issues to get the place they’re going. Since our begin because the Google Self-Driving Automobile Venture in 2009, Waymo has been targeted 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 Through, 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
