Testing
Testing vehicles with varying degrees of automation can be done
physically, in closed environments, on public roads (where permitted,
typically with a license or permit or adhering to a specific set of
operating principles) or virtually, i.e. in computer simulations. When
driven on public roads, automated vehicles require a person to monitor
their proper operation and “take over” when needed. Apple is currently
testing self-driven cars, and has increased the number of test vehicles
from 3 to 27 in January 2018, and to 45 in March 2018.
One way to assess the progress of automated vehicles is to compute the
average distance driven between “disengagements”, when the automated
system is turned off, typically by a human driver. In 2017, Waymo
reported 63 disengagements over 352,545 miles (567,366 km) of testing,
or 5,596 miles (9,006 km) on average, the highest among companies
reporting such figures. Waymo also traveled more distance in total than
any other. Their 2017 rate of 0.18 disengagements per 1,000 miles (1,600
km) was an improvement from 0.2 disengagements per 1,000 miles (1,600
km) in 2016 and 0.8 in 2015. In March, 2017, Uber reported an average of
0.67 miles (1.08 km) per disengagement. In the final three months of
2017, Cruise Automation (now owned by GM) averaged 5,224 miles (8,407
km) per disruption over 62,689 miles (100,888 km). In July 2018, the
first electric driverless racing car “Robocar” completed 1.8
kilometers track, using its navigation system and artificial
intelligence.
Maker | Distance between disengagements | Distance |
BMW | 638 miles (1027 km) | 638 miles (1027 km) |
Bosch | 0.68 miles (1.09 km) | 983 miles (1582 km) |
Delphi Automotive Systems | 14.9 miles (24.0 km) | 2658 miles (4278 km) |
Ford | 196.6 miles (316.4 km) | 590 miles (950 km) |
General Motors | 54.7 miles (88.0 km) | 8156 miles (13126 km) |
Mercedes Benz | 2 miles (3.2 km) | 673 miles (1083 km) |
Nissan | 263.3 miles (423.7 km) | 6056 miles (9746 km) |
Tesla | 2.9 miles (4.7 km) | 550 miles (890 km) |
Waymo | 5127.9 miles (8252.6 km) | 635868 miles (1023330 km) |
Source: Wang, Brian (25 March 2018). “Uber’ self-driving system was
still 400 times worse [than] Waymo in 2018 on key distance
intervention metric”. NextBigFuture.com. Retrieved 25 March 2018.