13x compared to what ? The average driver is such a bullshit statistic - accidents are highly correlated with stuff like alcohol/drugs/lack of sleep/lack of experience/physical issues, then the other huge behavioral factor distraction and driving style, and on top of that car performance matters a lot too. I don't see any attempt to correct for that in their "human benchmark". Heck the least they could have done is compare to human taxi drivers which would be apples to apples. If it's 13x compared to that I'm sold for using it as a taxi service !
But individual driving - you can eliminate all those factors assuming you're a healthy, expericed driver with a new car. Nothing against self driving in principle but the failure cases I've seen look so bizarre - I'm way more comfortable with my limitations.
Is it a bullshit stat though? it's not like you or I can go to a different dimension where all drivers are healthy, fully awake, undistracted, sober, competent, etc.
You don't need to. You just need to be in good condition yourself and actually paying attention. Professional delivery drivers routinely achieve seemingly absurd mileages per incident.
Well, if we were talking about forcing people to stop driving and transition to current waymos it's plausible that diligent sober drivers would be facing greater risk. Would that be acceptable to improve average statistics?
If you're arguing to the regulator that "look these cars are not as bad as humans overall" I guess that's fine, but if you're trying to sell me on using self-driving by comparing to something that's completely unrelated to my use-cases that's just BS.
Unless their message is "if you're drunk turn on self driving" which I could get behind, I sincerely doubt current self driving is better than humans - simply because of the data they chose to compare to. If they were better than professional taxi drivers I'm sure they would tout that data widely.
This perspective makes the statistic even more impressive. Every day driving they interact with probably thousands of people who are impaired in some way and manage to drive safely far more often
No not really - because it doesn't compare to other comparable drivers. You're assuming that human drivers can't drive defensively.
Like a realistic comparison would be comparing it to taxi drivers/ride share drivers - then you'd see the risk vs using a cab/uber/whatever. Not a drunk 18 year old with a clunker with no brakes.
But individual driving - you can eliminate all those factors assuming you're a healthy, expericed driver with a new car. Nothing against self driving in principle but the failure cases I've seen look so bizarre - I'm way more comfortable with my limitations.