American autonomous driving technology company, Waymo says its robo-taxis are now driving across “tens of thousands of miles on London roads.” According to the company, the early mileage provides a baseline of context for the Waymo Driver, and has enabled its team to train the driver in a simulated London environment.
It informed that within the “past few weeks,” Waymo had started letting the cars take control. The self-driving cars have been in the capital since last autumn, but until now, they were under the manual control of “safety drivers,” According to the company. Waymo says the robo-care being controlled by artificial intelligence, albeit with a human sitting in the driver’s seat just in case.
The company has had humans driving the cars across “tens of thousands of miles on London roads.” It added that “the early mileage provides a baseline of context for the Waymo Driver, and has enabled our team to train the Driver in a simulated London environment.”
Waymo described the announcement as “the next step” towards “fully autonomous passenger service(s) later this year, pending government approval”. However, it isn’t just government approval they’ll need to win in order to make the launch a success.
A YouGov poll in October last year suggested 59% of British adults would not feel comfortable riding in a self-driving taxi under any circumstances, while 85 percent would choose a regular taxi over a driverless one if they were the same cost and convenience.
Waymo repeatedly emphasises the safety record of the cars, saying they are significantly safer than human drivers. “The Waymo Driver was involved in 92 percent fewer crashes that cause serious or fatal injuries compared to human drivers where we operate,” the company said early last week. It has previously emphasised other benefits, such as privacy in the car, and peace of mind and security for female passengers.
“Our sensors are able to perceive the world around them, much better, much more accurately and with more of a field of view than human drivers can,” said head of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at Waymo, Nicole Gavel, while speaking with Sky News in January. She added that the cars were able to achieve a “superhuman level of perception.”
