Hyperdrive

Alphabet’s Waymo Says Its Tech Would Avoid Fatal Human Crashes

  • Simulations test autonomous cars in real-world crash scenarios
  • Waymo wants to replace human drivers with self-driving systems
Photographer: Mark Kauzlarich/Bloomberg
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The autonomous-car artificial intelligence from Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo avoided or mitigated crashes in most of a set of virtually recreated fatal accidents, according to a white paper the company published Monday.

The simulations were based on 72 fatal crashes that occurred between 2008 and 2017 in Chandler, Arizona, where Waymo currently operates a small-scale autonomous ride-hail service based on its “Driver” sensors and software. That included 20 incidents involving a pedestrian or cyclist.