Alphabet's Waymo Highlights Achievements: Extensive Expansion And 700K Driverless Trips This Year

Alphabet Inc‘s GOOG GOOGL autonomous driving technology unit Waymo on Thursday recounted its year’s achievements, including 700,000+ autonomous rides and expansion of operation areas.

What Happened: Waymo co-CEOs Dmitri Dolgov and Tekedra Mawakana said in a blog that tens of thousands of people drive with Waymo every week now. This year, the company provided over 700,000 trips as of the end of November.

In addition to serving more customers, the unit also expanded its operation areas. It more than doubled its operation territory in Phoenix and covered the entirety of the mainland city of San Francisco. In Los Angeles and Austin, Waymo intends to incrementally add more riders next year, the co-CEOs said.

“A once-unbelievable idea — that a vehicle with no driver behind the wheel could get you from A to B in your daily life — is quickly becoming a reality, and for many more people,” they wrote.

The company has also added to its safety data, with Waymo Driver involved in fewer crashes that led to injuries, police reports or insurance claims as compared to human drivers, they said.

Why It Matters: In November, several unions and labor groups, including United Auto Workers (UAW) wrote to the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) pressing for open investigations into automated vehicle operators, including Waymo, Zoox, and Beep. 

“Let us be clear: ADS-equipped vehicle operations are unsafe and untenable in their current form. This industry is in dire need of federal regulation and leadership to restore a modicum of safety and establish a realistic path for these vehicles to operate without threatening other road users – including those represented by these unions,” the letter stated. 

Autonomous vehicle operators have been at the receiving end of flak since a Cruise AV got involved in an accident in early October. In the incident, a human-driven vehicle traveling adjacent to a Cruise AV collided with a pedestrian, sending the pedestrian across the vehicle and onto the ground in the path of the AV. The AV made contact with a pedestrian and pulled them forward by about 20 feet.  Cruise subsequently halted all operations in the U.S.

However, last month, Ark analyst Tasha Keeney noted that Waymo traveled 0.5 adjusted million miles before being involved in a crash this year as opposed to Cruise, who traveled merely 0.04 million miles.

"Waymo still looks better than the average human, while Cruise falls below," Keeney said.

Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.

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Waymo. Image Via Shutterstock