Waymo has launched a new website that highlights the safety record of its fleet of 600 autonomous vehicles in California and Arizona.
The “road safety data hub” details Waymo’s history of collisions over the past four years and the number of driverless miles traveled across its current three markets: San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix, says NBC Bay Area.
Waymo also offers analysis of its data, describing its self-driving vehicles as “better than humans” when it comes to avoiding crashes resulting in injuries, airbag deployments and police reports.
Since 2020, Waymo’s driverless vehicles have been involved in 192 collisions, of which 18 resulted in some type of injury across the trio of cities currently serviced by the ride-hailing company. In comparing its self-driving cars to human drivers across San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, Waymo estimates its autonomous vehicles were involved in 72% fewer injury-causing crashes, 84% fewer collisions involving air bag deployments and 51% fewer accidents reported to police.
Waymo’s efforts to increase transparency come as California regulators are attempting to force driverless car companies to divulge more details about collisions involving its driverless vehicles. Last week, the California DMV released a proposal to bolster reporting requirements by requiring autonomous car companies to notify the state each time one of its vehicles is involved in a collision, essentially mirroring requirements already put in place by the federal government under the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
California regulations require autonomous car companies to report only the collisions that occur during testing, which means self-driving vehicles deployed for paid shuttle services with the public are exempt from having to report accidents to the DMV. The proposed change, which also creates a framework to begin testing driverless big rigs on California highways, still requires regulatory approval, which could take up to two years.
(Pic – Waymo Press Library)
