A study last month done by Swiss Re for Waymo suggests that self-driving Waymo cars are far, far safer than human drivers:
I have long recommended that if you want to evaluate the state of autonomous cars, look at Waymo. Forget about Tesla or Cruise or any of the others. They may do certain things well or poorly, but Waymo is the state of the art.
Note that this chart is based solely on miles driven with no human behind the steering wheel. It is 100% autonomous driving. And as many others have already pointed out, autonomous cars will get better every year. Humans won't.
But this does make me wonder: When are we all going to be able to buy driverless cars using Waymo technology? At this point, Waymo:
- Works on city streets.
- Works on highways.
- Has been tested in San Francisco, Austin, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.
- Is able to drive, park, let you off at the curb, and reliably take instructions about where to go.
- Is extremely safe.
So what's left? I suppose there's still work to be done to make the radar stuff smaller and cheaper, but is that all? It sure seems like Waymo is very, very close to being able to sell this stuff on the consumer market.
I want one.
I keep having to point this out. There is a reason all these tests are in the desert southwest -- self driving cars do not deal well with inclement weather. And until that situation is resolved, they aren't going to be selling anywhere at any price. California, Nevada, Arizona and Texas are not a sufficient market.