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Two Cruise autonomous automobiles driving on the streets of San Francisco. | Supply: Cruise
Autonomous automobile (AV) firms, with the correct permits, drove 9,068,861 take a look at miles in autonomous mode from Dec. 2022 – Nov. 2023, in accordance with the California Division of Motor Automobiles (DMV). The group lately launched its annual disengagement stories.
The DMV’s annual stories summarize when automobiles disengaged from autonomous mode throughout testing, based mostly on the businesses’ self-reported information. Of the over 9 million miles recorded, 3,267,792 miles have been utterly driverless, and 5,801,069 have been with a security driver. In whole, California noticed a rise of about 3.3 million autonomous miles pushed from the earlier reporting interval.
Whereas the stories can present insights to higher perceive the dimensions of autonomous automobile (AV) testing within the state, they’re not indicator of how these firms’ operations evaluate to one another. The numbers are all self-reported and don’t embody insights about what sort of driving these AVs are doing. For instance, some firms are testing their automobiles on much less dynamic public roads, so that they run into fewer points than an organization testing in busy downtown areas.
There are at the moment 38 firms with legitimate permits to check AVs with security drivers. Six of them — Apollo, AutoX, Nuro, Waymo, WeRide, and Zoox — can take a look at with out security drivers. Pegasus Expertise Holdings did not submit a disengagement report, and the DMV says it’s suspending the corporate’s allow.
Autonomous automobile disengagements in 2023
A disengagement happens when a failure of the know-how is detected or when the security driver takes fast management of the automobile. The report consists of the overall variety of disengagements for every firm, the circumstances or testing circumstances, the situation, and the overall miles traveled in autonomous mode on public roads for every allow holder.
Disengagements is usually a difficult metric to maintain observe of. Every firm is left to find out what a disengagement is for them and stories accordingly. For instance, security drivers could take management of a automobile in occasions once they assume the AV system is failing, however simulations of the incident present the automobile would have responded appropriately. On this case, some firms may report the disengagement, whereas others could select to not.
AV firms reported 6,570 disengagements in 2023, with three firms, AutoX, Cruise, and Mercedes-Benz, reporting none. It’s unclear why these firms reported no disengagements for the yr, and it doesn’t essentially imply their methods had no disengagements through the reporting interval. When you’ve adopted Cruise, for instance, you’re properly conscious of its struggles.
Of the businesses that did report disengagements, Zoox automobiles averaged probably the most miles pushed per disengagement at 177,602 miles. Following Zoox is WeRide with 21,191 miles, and Waymo with 17,311 miles. It needs to be famous that of those three firms, Waymo has the most important and most diverse service space, which may contribute to a bigger variety of disengagements.
For the primary time, AV firms reported what number of disengagements got here from a security driver, what number of got here from the AV system itself, or each. Zoox, for instance, reported solely 4 disengagements, all coming from a security driver.
Waymo reported 191 disengagements from a security driver and 21 from the AV system. Apple, which vastly ramped up its AV testing in 2023, reported 2,391 disengagements from a security driver and 803 from the system.
Waymo, Cruise, Zoox have largest fleets, most miles
In whole, there have been 1,603 autonomous automobiles in operation in California through the 2023 reporting interval. Round 76% of these automobiles have been operated by three firms: Cruise with 510, Waymo with 438, and Zoox with 281. Cruise’s permits have been suspended in October, a month earlier than the recording interval ended.
Regardless of Cruise having probably the most automobiles, Waymo lined probably the most distance in 2023. In whole, Waymo automobiles traveled 4,858,890 miles. Of these, 3,669,962 miles have been with a security driver and 1,188,928 miles have been driverless.
Cruise got here in second. Its automobiles traveled 583,624 miles and not using a security driver and had probably the most driverless miles at 2,064,728 miles. Zoox automobiles traveled 710,409 miles with a security driver, and 11,263 with out.
With solely 67 automobiles on the street, Apple vastly elevated its miles pushed in 2023. Throughout the reporting interval, its automobiles traveled 452,744 miles with a security driver, an over 261% improve from the 125,096 miles it lined in 2022. Apple doesn’t have a allow for driverless testing.