Best self-driving cars according to California Department of Motor Vehicles

Our company has recently visited the exhibition of self-driving cars in California. Among the most interesting showpieces there were the representatives of Waymo Company, which seemed quite interesting to us.

Let’s look closer at best representatives of this field and at Waymo cars in particular!

California Department of Motor Vehicles has published statistics on the work of self-driving cars in the state. The report also shows how often cars are transferred from autonomous to manual control by a driver who sits behind the wheel for insurance.

The Waymo cars turned out to be the most independent (included in the Alphabet holding together with Google). They recorded 0.09 switching per thousand miles, which means that, on average, every 11,017 miles (17,730 km) cars pass without human intervention. The Cruise from General Motors is in the second place - 5,205 miles (8,376 km) without shifting.

Apple is at the last place on the list, with a figure of 871 switching per thousand miles. This means that drivers intercepted control from the automatic control on average every 1.1 miles (1.77 km). Apple explained that interceptions happened so often, because the self-managed systems of the company are not yet ready for all the conditions and situations on the road.

Waymo has been testing 126 cars in California; they drive 1.26 million miles per year. Cruise has 175 cars; they have traveled 447.6 thousand miles. The Apple reports 62 cars that have driven 79,700 miles. 

John Krafchik, head of Waymo, said that during testing, the self-driving cars of the company independently overcame 16 million km of real US roads. They can be found in 25 US cities located in "sunny California, dusty Arizona and snowy Michigan, as well as on highways around Phoenix and the dense city streets of San Francisco."

He said that such results were achieved thanks to investments in the virtual world. It is the simulation of real roads that helps to effectively train the self-driving control system, since it is possible to recreate any situation and make it even more difficult. The numbers here are much more serious: self-driving cars in the virtual world traveled 11.2 billion km.

It is noted that in the virtual world, unmanned vehicles pass about 16 million km every day. At the same time, when it comes to traveling on real US roads, the company is trying to find the best balance between caution and politeness, as well as aggressiveness and assertiveness of the autopilot. This is necessary so that passengers do not get scared because of the sharpness of the maneuvers and, in general, for the comfortable of the travel.

Krafchik added that Waymo will continue to work on making the routes and operation of self-driving cars even more efficient. Thus, the company seeks to increase the confidence of people and regulators in self-driving control systems.

In conclusion, it is possible to say that the future is closer than it has seemed. The self-driving technology is being developed every day and is becoming safer and more available.