Waymo drones have already driven 4 million miles (6.4 million km) on real roads in 23 US cities

Waymo drones have already driven 4 million miles (6.4 million km) on real roads in 23 US cities

Waymo announced that its unmanned vehicles have already traveled on public roads more than 4 million miles (6.4 million kilometers). For comparison, to overcome the same distance the average American driver will take about 300 years.

Interestingly, Waymo drone its first million miles for 6 years (from 2009 to 2015), to reach the second million it took a year and a half, but the third and fourth were overcome in just six months each:

During the trips to the test site of the company with the area of ​​91 acres, the developers experienced various scenarios arising on real roads - the whole team tested about 20 thousand unique situations, including interaction with aggressive drivers and recognition of unusual participants in the movement (for example, skateboarders lying on their boards) . The data obtained during these tests were used to improve the algorithms of the autonomous driving system.

In addition to the polygon, computer simulation was also very actively used, where Waymo virtual drone vehicles crossed 2.5 billion miles in just the last year. Every day more than 25 thousand virtual cars of the company train without accidents to get out of difficult situations, "gaining experience". Speaking of real roads, the company's cars visited for testing 23 American cities, from San Francisco to Phoenix and Austin.

Recall that recently, Waymo announced the launch in the US of a fully autonomous taxi service based on Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans. A distinctive feature of this service is the fact that the driver's seat of the car does not have a service officer or a test pilot who could take control in his own hands in an emergency situation.

Source: Waymo