A study by Swiss Re shows Waymo autonomous cars are safer than human-driven vehicles.
The study is based on databases of car crash claims and compares autonomous and human drivers. While Waymo’s 3.8 million miles of autonomous driving recorded no bodily injury claims, the figure for human-controlled vehicles was 1.11 damage per million miles. In terms of property damage, Waymo scored 0.78 damage per million miles, while human drivers scored 3.26 damage per million miles. This data is based on insurance data and is more accurate than police reports.
The study also considers 35 million miles of autonomous test drives overseen by a human supervisor. Waymo performs these tests in Phoenix in Arizona and san francisco in California through. As of October 2020, Waymo has been operating autonomous taxis in Phoenix without human safety oversight, and as of November of last year, the San Francisco company was licensed to do so. Recently Waymo and the competitor got Cruise permission to operate 24/7 autonomous taxi cabs throughout San Francisco for a fee.
The study emphasizes that insurance data is better suited to comparing autonomous and human-driven driving than police reports because insurance reports are more accurate and standardized. This is the first study to use this method to assess the safety of autonomous vehicles.