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The way to those who drive ones own cars is set to promises to save people from themselves (and each other). Waymo, Google’s self-driving project, States that “the status quo of road safety is not acceptable” and that is a driving autonomy “can save lives”. Elon musk, never exceeded, As In October if Unveiling Tesla’s Cybercab to be autonomous cars can be “10 times secure than a person” and “save life – like, many lives.”

It is an eligible purpose, and one who is trying to achieve. Then, people terrible drivers, aren’t you? In 2022, the most recent year where there is detailed data, 42,514 people killed in motor vehicle traffic on roads, according to The National Highway Traffic Security Administration. Those who killed, 29 percent were killed in hurry-related crashes, and 32 percent were classified as “alcohol-inflicted.

Completely drives one’s own cars, opposite, don’t drink and drive. They are not easy because they are not patient or running. They cannot sleep. They do not interrupt their phones. On top of that, they have 360-degree vision. “There should be eyes on your head,” I remember a truck driver who told me once. Autonomous cars actually.

But for companies that make vehicles, there are two problems with their promise to save lives. The first is that human drivers sets the bar higher than you think. Once you think about how many miles we drive, the deaths actually rarely. The death rate per 100mn car miles traveling in the US is only 1.33 of 2022. It is nearly 1 for a decade.

The latest data from waymo display Its vehicles are only driving 33mn miles without a human driver until the end of September last year. This means that it has not been driving anywhere enough for miles to make a statistical comparison of human drivers when part of death rates.

That is said, Waymo’s record of less severe accidents will appear to be inspiring. The company Data analysis The vehicles suggested lesser damage causing crashes and police reported in crashes away from driving people in both cities. Waymo told me that this is “important reduction in the number of serious crashes compared to human drivers in places where we work”. Phil Koopman’s safety expert, a car safety expert, take care of satisfaction. “We know that computers have failed to be different from people,” he said to me. “Man’s drivers failed each other, but (with) computers, each car has the same driver, so something happens it will all fail.” In addition, he said, computers may not be drunk, but they have “common sense.”

That brings us to the second problem. Although the vehicle’s own car companies with enough data to indicate their technology can save lives, there are many self-experts who are not good with people who are bad with people.

There is the Taxi Waymo driving Round and round In circles in a car park with a confused passenger inside, for example. Or the time not one but two waymos broken with The back of the same truck pick-up is delivered by the road to a small angle, confusing the software. More serious, have time a pedestrian beelogon By another vehicle on the road to a total motor drive vehicle driving a car, then dragging him for 20ft at the bottom. In that case, a subsequent review checked on the cruise found That “an alert and attention driver of the person to know that the effect of some sorts occur and does not continue to drive without further investigation in the situation”.

It may be unreasonable, as the coke, but the nature of human stories is like this staff of mind is more than statistics. If your sales point is “Our cars are safer drivers than people”, then every time one of your cars do something not to do, your public case is missing. In contrast, accidents that don’t happen thanks to your technology rarely make the news.

That’s probably why annual examination Through the Automobile Association Association shows people become more frightened by technology over time. The part of the US drivers say that they trusted self-drives from 14 percent of 2021 to 9 percent say that they “fear” rose from 54 to 66 percent.

Self-driving companies can say they want to save lives, but it’s harder than they think to give them the test.

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