There Was A Report On Testing Drones In California: What Have Tesla, AutoX And Apple Achieved

2023 Author: Natalie MacDonald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 13:59

Brad Templeton, a former member of the Google automotive team, analyzed recent reports of self-driving system failures during a car test in California for Forbes and found out something interesting.

• Over the past years, scientists have studied reports on drone testing and information on autonomous driving system failures, when the autopilot transfers control to the driver in an emergency or incomprehensible situation. However, Templeton said that over time, such reports ceased to be informative, as companies manipulated the data. For example, not all cases of autopilot shutdown were reported.
• Waymo has reported one 30,000 mile (48,280 km) autopilot trip in California. At the same time, Waymo is the only one who provided a methodology for working with data. The company said it was simulating what would have happened if the driver had not intervened and ignored trips if there was no emergency.

• In Chandler, Arizona, Waymo recorded one outage per 130,000 miles (over 209,000 km). This difference is likely due to the much higher traffic density in California and specifically in the suburb of San Francisco, where the tests took place.
• Apple reported that its drones traveled only 19,000 miles (30,500 km) and the autopilot was disabled multiple times in the process.
• Tesl did not disclose the number of test miles it traveled, which Templeton finds odd given that Elon Musk's company is actively testing a beta version of its autopilot.
• China's AutoX has conducted more test drives in California than US companies, according to the report. In addition, they previously launched a full-fledged robotic taxi service in the suburbs of Shenzhen.