Autonomy as infrastructure: the new reality of driverless mobility

When we talk about a technology like autonomous driving — developing at great speed but unevenly, limited to a few markets, and once deemed impossible by many — it’s worth occasionally pausing to take stock of how far we’ve come.

In just 18 months, Waymo has gone from 50,000 to 250,000 paid rides per week across its four US markets (Phoenix, San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Austin) — a milestone that confirms the operational maturity of autonomous driving technology and the growing interest of users in a service that is becoming almost routine in some cities.

This growth coincides with a new, still pre-published study analyzing 91 million driverless kilometers, which concludes that the Waymo Driver dramatically reduces serious accidents compared to human driving.

Safety is an unarguable point — because the data is clear: 92% fewer injured pedestrians, 82% fewer injuries to cyclists and motorcyclists, and 96% fewer intersection crashes compared to equivalent human driving averages. Given this stark contrast, it becomes difficult to argue against autonomous driving becoming the default option in dense urban areas sooner or later. The reduction in the social cost of traffic accidents is simply too valuable to ignore.