Accidents

The Motley Fool has published a list of important numbers for self-driving cars.

Many of these numbers are familiar for industry followers. Google has 53 self-driving cars, that travel at 25 mph, etc.

However, two number stand out.

6 states currently permit autonomous vehicles. However, several more states, like Virginia and Texas, state that autonomous vehicles are allowed by default. Perhaps I am biased as a Virginian, but I suspect development may shift to those states with the fewest restrictions.

The other number that stands out is actually an inequality. “61,883 < 730,000”. Actually, 61,883 <<< 730,000.

The Motley Fool does a good job putting those numbers in context. In the last six months, Google vehicles have been involved in one fender-bender per 61,883 miles. The national average, however, is 730,000. Which indicates that human-driven cars are much less likely to be involved in accidents than Google cars.

There are a few considerations, to be sure. For one, Google cars have never been “at fault” in these accidents. It’s always been the driver of the other car who has been at fault.

Also, Google has to report all of its accidents, whereas many human drivers cause minor accidents and never report them.

Nonetheless, the huge disparity in these numbers indicates that Google cars may need to get less accident-prone before they are released to the general public.

Originally published at www.davidincalifornia.com on January 3, 2016.