Data from the California Department of Motor Vehicles revealed on Wednesday, Feb. 1, that prototype self-driving Google cars developed by Waymo subsidiary are significantly improving their skills.
Google Self-Driving Technology Is Improving
According to The Verge, California's Department of Motor Vehicles' annual vehicle disengagement discloses the number of times that human drivers were needed to take control of their driverless vehicles tested on the state's public roads by various companies. Despite a huge increase in the number of miles driven, Google's new self-driving car company, Waymo, reported for the year 2016 a significant drop in disengagements. This means that, even as they are driving a whole lot more miles, Waymo's self-driving cars are failing at a much lower rate.
The company's rate of safety-related disengages has fallen to 0.2 per thousand miles in 2016 from 0.8 per thousand miles in 2015. During this time, Waymo increased its driving by 50 percent in the state of California, up to a total of 635,868 miles. In the same period, the company's total number of reportable disengages fell to 124 in 2016 from 341 in 2015. From this data, it can be concluded that Google's self-driving cars just got way better at driving themselves.
Dmitri Dolgov, head of self-driving technology for Waymo, explained that behind this four-fold improvement are significant efforts to improve company's hardware and software. Extensive testing has been performed on complex suburban and urban streets because Waymo is designing a self-driving car that can take passengers from door to door. Valuable experience has been gained in practicing advanced maneuvers and sharing the road safely with cyclists and pedestrians.
Google Autonomous Cars Ahead Of Competition
According to the report, most of Waymo's disengagements were the result of "software glitches." "Recklessly behaving road user," "perception discrepancies" and "unwanted maneuvers" also resulted in dozens of disengagements. However, the good news is that there were no reports of accidents or crashes.
Companies intending to test autonomous vehicles on the roads are required by the state of California to register for an autonomous driving permit. Carmakers are also required to report their disengagement rates to the DMV as part of this program. The DMV makes public those numbers.
When it comes to public testing, Waymo is far ahead of its competitors. The Google subsidiary still has the edge on real-world experience, while many other car and tech companies have been testing privately for many years. Most recently, Waymo has announced its plans to deploy its fleet of autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivans that first debuted last month at the Detroit auto show.
According to Apple Insider, Google's Waymo subsidiary is well ahead of its rivals in testing self-driving cars. Google is, in fact, the tech company credited for having kickstarted the driverless cars rush by showing that the technology could work. Meanwhile, its rival Apple has expressed interest in testing a car on public roads, but it's expected to design its own vehicle only in late 2017. For its self-driving "Project Titan, the company is most likely to choose to partner with an existing automaker.
