Alphabet's Waymo sharpens self-driving car tech, expands testing lead over rivals like Apple

Even as Apple tests remain shrouded in secrecy, prototype self-driving cars by Waymo — formerly under Google — are dramatically improving their skills, data from the California Department of Motor Vehicles revealed on Wednesday.

While Waymo's test fleet in the state drove 635,868 miles in 2016, 50 percent more than in 2015, safety-based disengagements fell from 0.8 per 1,000 miles to just 0.2, something highlighted by Waymo's head of self-driving technology, Dimitri Dolgov. The executive credited progress to a "more capable and mature" mix of hardware and software, and operating on "complex urban or suburban streets," helping to build experience dealing with complicated situations.

In all Waymo dealt with 124 disengagements. The company blamed most of these on "software glitches," but "unwanted maneuvers," "perception discrepancies," and "recklessly behaving road users" also played a part.

Crucially, in no case did Waymo cars crash or otherwise get into an accident.

Waymo is believed to be well ahead of its rivals in testing self-driving cars, having kickstarted the modern rush by showing the technology could work. The company is transitioning away from self-designed test vehicles and should soon deploy modified Chrysler Pacifica minivans.

Apple has expressed interest in testing a car on public roads, but is thought to have temporarily shelved the idea of designing its own vehicle until late 2017, if ever. The company could choose to partner with an existing automaker for its self-driving efforts, known as "Project Titan."

In the meantime Apple is thought to be testing systems in virtual reality, and experimenting with augmented reality for purposes like navigation.

37 Comments

2old4fun 239 comments · 11 Years

About 7 years ago

sog35 said:

Self driving cars are silly.

As you are silly. Self Driving Cars are mass transit but not constrained by timetable as public mass transit is.

steven n. 1229 comments · 13 Years

I really like the idea of the ability to have self driving cars as an option. That said, the Way car in my Chandler neighborhood likes to do illegal U-Turns so it has a ways to go yet.

SpamSandwich 32917 comments · 19 Years

I'm predicting that self-driving vehicles will prove so much an improvement over current vehicles that insurance rates will eventual make non-computer assisted driving all but unaffordable except for the very wealthy.

Herbivore2 367 comments · 8 Years

2old4fun said:

sog35 said:

Self driving cars are silly.

As you are silly. Self Driving Cars are mass transit but not constrained by timetable as public mass transit is.

Self driving cars are NOT mass transit. Nice way to buy the Google Kool Aid.

Self driving cars will still mostly transport one passenger per vehicle which isn't mass transit by any stretch of the imagination.

Self driving cars are computerized taxis.

I myself find the notion of self driving cars unsettling. There are a whole host of ethical and legal issues to still be worked out. Testing autonomous vehicles without passengers in semi-controlled conditions is one thing.

Riding in one as a passenger knowing that I am in the hands of another software engineer/programmer is another. The software will be built to the ethical standards of someone else. And how will the software react to a child running into the street chasing a ball vs. runaway grocery cart. In one case, I would accept the vehicle steering into a wall. In the other case, I would not. Unless the cart had a child in it.

While the technology is serious, the flagrant promotion of self driving technology by Google is frankly, quite silly. I don't want it. And neither do the vast majority of my friends and colleagues.

The only people who do want it? People who have no business operating a motor vehicle in the first place. And do we really want a blind, demented elderly person being transported as the only passenger in a self driving vehicle?

I certainly don't. And if you believe it should be the case, then I would invite you to take flight on a commercial airplane without human pilots.

randominternetperson 3095 comments · 8 Years

Herbivore2 said:

2old4fun said:

sog35 said:

Self driving cars are silly.

As you are silly. Self Driving Cars are mass transit but not constrained by timetable as public mass transit is.

Self driving cars are NOT mass transit. Nice way to buy the Google Kool Aid.

Self driving cars will still mostly transport one passenger per vehicle which isn't mass transit by any stretch of the imagination.

Self driving cars are computerized taxis.

I myself find the notion of self driving cars unsettling. There are a whole host of ethical and legal issues to still be worked out. Testing autonomous vehicles without passengers in semi-controlled conditions is one thing.

Riding in one as a passenger knowing that I am in the hands of another software engineer/programmer is another. The software will be built to the ethical standards of someone else. And how will the software react to a child running into the street chasing a ball vs. runaway grocery cart. In one case, I would accept the vehicle steering into a wall. In the other case, I would not. Unless the cart had a child in it.

While the technology is serious, the flagrant promotion of self driving technology by Google is frankly, quite silly. I don't want it. And neither do the vast majority of my friends and colleagues.

The only people who do want it? People who have no business operating a motor vehicle in the first place. And do we really want a blind, demented elderly person being transported as the only passenger in a self driving vehicle?

I certainly don't. And if you believe it should be the case, then I would invite you to take flight on a commercial airplane without human pilots.

We'll look back on posts like this in a few years chuckle at the quaint thinking it represents. Is "a few years" 3 year, 5 years, or 20 years? I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that in my lifetime I'll be saying "I remember when everyone drove and owned their own cars."
There are drivers running over kids in the streets every single day. The standard can't be "when will self-driving cars be PERFECT?" They are rapidly approaching the ability to being better and safer than a good human driver, and that progress isn't going to reverse itself.
Are you ok with blind, demented elderly people riding in taxis?