The Google sister Waymo has now reached more than nine million test kilometers.
Waymo test miles in chronological comparison. Source Waymo via Twitter.
The testing of autonomous vehicles in real traffic is very important, because only you can experience scenes that must dominate the car. These are also traffic scenarios that you can not imagine – what you must have experienced.
For example, Waymo saw chickens running across the lane. Since this scenario nobody foresaw, the car did not know what was happening. Nevertheless, it slowed down of course.
When you drive over 9 million miles, chances are you’re going to see some chickens. pic.twitter.com/uRusGz3CJD
– John Krafcik (@johnkrafcik) August 30, 2018
The nine million miles has Waymo (which started as Google) since 2009. The distance means a driven distance on the public roads. Meanwhile, you have covered five billion miles in simulations. Here you can teach the car the things that you can think of. In addition, simulations can also be used to check events that have happened in the real world.
The nine million miles were reached this month. It was still in July this year, the level of eight million miles. Seven million in June and April were six million miles. The first million test miles had been reached in June 2015. The curve is so steeply uphill. Nine million miles are equivalent to about 14.5 million kilometers.
Waymo is considered a leader in the development of autonomous driving, according to the Navigant study from 2017. The Google offshoot has a big one Fleet of vehicles, especially in the US, but also in Italy and probably soon in China around curves. In the US one operates also one Teststadt To try. Waymo wants to be the first company with a robot taxi service in Arizona start.