Interventions on Waymo autonomous cars halved in 2018

Waymo autonomous car testers in California have less and less need to intervene while driving. Last year they intervened 0.09 times per thousand miles. That is half less than a year earlier. Apple cars required 871.65 interventions per thousand miles.

Of all the self-driving cars in California, those from Google subsidiary Waymo require the least intervention, according to figures from The Last Driver License Holder. The site relies on figures from the DMV that were online for a short time and will be back online later this week. In the period from December 2017 to November 2018, the Waymo cars drove approximately 1.3 million miles, more than 2 million kilometers, and there were 114 “disengagements,” as the DMV calls it. That is, the self-driving technology detects an error or the tester finds it necessary to take control.

The year before, Waymo drove 352,545 miles and required 63 procedures for an average of 0.18 procedures per thousand miles. In one year, the company has therefore started to drive four times as much and halved the number of interventions per thousand miles. In 2017, the majority of the interventions took place on the normal road; six surgeries were required on the highway, according to Waymo’s report. What that ratio looks like for 2018 is unknown, because the full DMV report is not yet online.

Waymo is the only company to drive more than a million miles on California’s roads, followed by GM Cruise with 447,621 miles. With its 162 cars, this company had 86 interventions, an average of 0.19 per thousand miles.

The company with the most interventions was Apple, with its 62 cars it drove 79,745 miles and there were 69,510 interventions. That equates to an average of 871.65 procedures per thousand miles. It was Apple’s first year driving on public California roads.