Month: February 2023

Image: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Waymo announced recently that its fully driverless vehicles in California and Arizona have traveled 1 million miles as of January 2023. To recognize this milestone, the Alphabet-owned company pulled back the curtain on some interesting statistics, including the number of crashes and vehicle collisions that involved its robot cars.
Waymo operates a fleet of driverless cars in Phoenix, San Francisco, and the Bay Area. Some of those trips include paying customers. The company also recently started testing its driverless vehicles in Los Angeles.
Over that 1 million miles, Waymo’s vehicles were involved in only two crashes that met the criteria for inclusion in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s database for car crashes, called the Crash Investigation Sampling System (CISS). In general, these are crashes that were reported to the police and involved at least one vehicle being towed away. Of the two crashes that met the criteria, Waymo says its vehicle was rear-ended by another vehicle whose driver was looking at their phone while approaching a red light.
Over that 1 million miles, Waymo’s vehicles were involved in only two crashes
Waymo’s vehicles have also been involved in 18 “minor contact events” that did not meet NHTSA’s CISS criteria. These involve incidents like a car backing out of a parking spot and colliding with a stationary Waymo vehicle or a portable plastic sign stand getting blown by the wind and making contact with one of the company’s driverless cars.
Waymo says 55 percent of these minor contact events involved another driver colliding with a stationary Waymo vehicle, and 10 percent occurred at night. None of the events took place at intersections, where most vehicle crashes occur, nor did any involve pedestrians, cyclists, or other vulnerable road users.
In fact, Waymo is quick to place the blame on error-prone human drivers. “Every vehicle-to-vehicle event involved one or more road rule violation and/or dangerous behaviors on the part of the human drivers in the other vehicle,” the company says in a blog post. Waymo says it is publicizing these events in the interest of “greater transparency.”
None of the events took place at intersections, where most vehicle crashes occur
“Far too many people still die or are injured on our roads every year in communities across the country,” Waymo’s chief safety officer Mauricio Peña said in a statement. “This data suggests our fully autonomous driving system, the Waymo Driver, is reducing the likelihood of serious crashes, helping us make progress towards our mission for safer, more accessible mobility for all.”
Improved safety has been one of the main predictions of the autonomous vehicle (AV) industry. With over 1 million people dying in auto crashes globally every year, AV operators are increasingly leaning on this safety case to spur regulators to pass legislation allowing more fully autonomous vehicles on the road. But while the argument seems convincing on the surface — AVs don’t get drunk or distracted like humans, nor do they speed or break the law — there is scant data that proves that fully automated vehicles are safer than human drivers.
Waymo frequently discloses certain stats about its driverless vehicles in the interest of boosting its message that robot drivers are safer than humans. Previously, the company had sought to measure the safety of its AVs by simulating dozens of real-world fatal crashes that took place in Arizona over nearly a decade. The Google spinoff discovered that replacing either vehicle in a two-car collision with its robot-guided vehicles would nearly eliminate all deaths. Waymo also has submitted scientific papers for peer review and publication comparing autonomous vehicle performance to human driving.
There’s no standard approach for evaluating AV safety. A recent study by Rand concluded that, in the absence of a framework, customers are most likely to trust the government — even though US regulators appear content to let the private sector dictate what’s safe. In this vacuum, Waymo hopes that, by publicizing this data, policymakers, researchers, and even other companies may begin to take on the task of developing a universal framework.

Image: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Waymo announced recently that its fully driverless vehicles in California and Arizona have traveled 1 million miles as of January 2023. To recognize this milestone, the Alphabet-owned company pulled back the curtain on some interesting statistics, including the number of crashes and vehicle collisions that involved its robot cars.

Waymo operates a fleet of driverless cars in Phoenix, San Francisco, and the Bay Area. Some of those trips include paying customers. The company also recently started testing its driverless vehicles in Los Angeles.

Over that 1 million miles, Waymo’s vehicles were involved in only two crashes that met the criteria for inclusion in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s database for car crashes, called the Crash Investigation Sampling System (CISS). In general, these are crashes that were reported to the police and involved at least one vehicle being towed away. Of the two crashes that met the criteria, Waymo says its vehicle was rear-ended by another vehicle whose driver was looking at their phone while approaching a red light.

Waymo’s vehicles have also been involved in 18 “minor contact events” that did not meet NHTSA’s CISS criteria. These involve incidents like a car backing out of a parking spot and colliding with a stationary Waymo vehicle or a portable plastic sign stand getting blown by the wind and making contact with one of the company’s driverless cars.

Waymo says 55 percent of these minor contact events involved another driver colliding with a stationary Waymo vehicle, and 10 percent occurred at night. None of the events took place at intersections, where most vehicle crashes occur, nor did any involve pedestrians, cyclists, or other vulnerable road users.

In fact, Waymo is quick to place the blame on error-prone human drivers. “Every vehicle-to-vehicle event involved one or more road rule violation and/or dangerous behaviors on the part of the human drivers in the other vehicle,” the company says in a blog post. Waymo says it is publicizing these events in the interest of “greater transparency.”

“Far too many people still die or are injured on our roads every year in communities across the country,” Waymo’s chief safety officer Mauricio Peña said in a statement. “This data suggests our fully autonomous driving system, the Waymo Driver, is reducing the likelihood of serious crashes, helping us make progress towards our mission for safer, more accessible mobility for all.”

Improved safety has been one of the main predictions of the autonomous vehicle (AV) industry. With over 1 million people dying in auto crashes globally every year, AV operators are increasingly leaning on this safety case to spur regulators to pass legislation allowing more fully autonomous vehicles on the road. But while the argument seems convincing on the surface — AVs don’t get drunk or distracted like humans, nor do they speed or break the law — there is scant data that proves that fully automated vehicles are safer than human drivers.

Waymo frequently discloses certain stats about its driverless vehicles in the interest of boosting its message that robot drivers are safer than humans. Previously, the company had sought to measure the safety of its AVs by simulating dozens of real-world fatal crashes that took place in Arizona over nearly a decade. The Google spinoff discovered that replacing either vehicle in a two-car collision with its robot-guided vehicles would nearly eliminate all deaths. Waymo also has submitted scientific papers for peer review and publication comparing autonomous vehicle performance to human driving.

There’s no standard approach for evaluating AV safety. A recent study by Rand concluded that, in the absence of a framework, customers are most likely to trust the government — even though US regulators appear content to let the private sector dictate what’s safe. In this vacuum, Waymo hopes that, by publicizing this data, policymakers, researchers, and even other companies may begin to take on the task of developing a universal framework.

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When tested on a MacBook Pro 13 (M2, 2022) the new Chrome optimizations provided 17 hours of web browsing and 18 hours of video playback on YouTube. | Image: The Verge

Google has announced several changes to its Chrome web browser that can boost the battery life on MacBooks, extending how much usage users can get out of a single charge. By optimizing systems like memory compression and JavaScript timers, MacBook users can now browse the web via Chrome and watch YouTube videos for longer, with tests conducted on a MacBook Pro 13 (M2, 2022) achieving 17 hours of web browsing and 18 hours of video playback on YouTube.
Google didn’t provide figures for the device’s battery life prior to this update, so we can’t make a direct before and after comparison, but The Verge managed to drain the battery of the same MacBook in 16 hours and 30 minutes running a variety of everyday tasks. Google’s performance tests were conducted using Chrome version 110.0.5481.100, and the tech giant claims that the new energy optimizations will also benefit older MacBook hardware. François Doray, software developer for Chrome has confirmed to The Verge that these optimizations will also be applied to Windows, Linux, and Android devices in coming Chrome releases.

But what has actually changed? Google fine-tuned the garbage collection and memory compression of recently created iframes (an element that loads another HTML element inside of a webpage), reducing energy consumption without impacting long-term memory usage. JavaScript timers — created to execute a task or function at a particular time — have been tweaked to wake the CPU of a device less frequently and remove obsolete timers entirely. Finally, Chrome has been modified to ignore unnecessary style, layout, paint, raster, and GPU steps on websites, with a similar update also implemented to the Chrome UI. Most of these optimizations should go undetected by the user.
Google also released a new Energy Saver mode for Chrome earlier this month that extends battery life by limiting any unnecessary background activity on websites, such as visual effects like smooth scrolling on animations or videos. The search giant claims that enabling this mode can grant users an additional 30 minutes of browsing time when tested against the same MacBook Pro 13 (M2, 2022). It’s not much, but every second counts if you’re trying to finish up important tasks before your laptop dies.
The Chrome stable desktop channel was updated to version 110.0.5481.100 on February 14th for Windows, Mac, and Linux devices, which Google disclosed would roll out “over the coming days/weeks.” A full list of changes for this release is available to view via the update log.

When tested on a MacBook Pro 13 (M2, 2022) the new Chrome optimizations provided 17 hours of web browsing and 18 hours of video playback on YouTube. | Image: The Verge

Google has announced several changes to its Chrome web browser that can boost the battery life on MacBooks, extending how much usage users can get out of a single charge. By optimizing systems like memory compression and JavaScript timers, MacBook users can now browse the web via Chrome and watch YouTube videos for longer, with tests conducted on a MacBook Pro 13 (M2, 2022) achieving 17 hours of web browsing and 18 hours of video playback on YouTube.

Google didn’t provide figures for the device’s battery life prior to this update, so we can’t make a direct before and after comparison, but The Verge managed to drain the battery of the same MacBook in 16 hours and 30 minutes running a variety of everyday tasks. Google’s performance tests were conducted using Chrome version 110.0.5481.100, and the tech giant claims that the new energy optimizations will also benefit older MacBook hardware. François Doray, software developer for Chrome has confirmed to The Verge that these optimizations will also be applied to Windows, Linux, and Android devices in coming Chrome releases.

But what has actually changed? Google fine-tuned the garbage collection and memory compression of recently created iframes (an element that loads another HTML element inside of a webpage), reducing energy consumption without impacting long-term memory usage. JavaScript timers — created to execute a task or function at a particular time — have been tweaked to wake the CPU of a device less frequently and remove obsolete timers entirely. Finally, Chrome has been modified to ignore unnecessary style, layout, paint, raster, and GPU steps on websites, with a similar update also implemented to the Chrome UI. Most of these optimizations should go undetected by the user.

Google also released a new Energy Saver mode for Chrome earlier this month that extends battery life by limiting any unnecessary background activity on websites, such as visual effects like smooth scrolling on animations or videos. The search giant claims that enabling this mode can grant users an additional 30 minutes of browsing time when tested against the same MacBook Pro 13 (M2, 2022). It’s not much, but every second counts if you’re trying to finish up important tasks before your laptop dies.

The Chrome stable desktop channel was updated to version 110.0.5481.100 on February 14th for Windows, Mac, and Linux devices, which Google disclosed would roll out “over the coming days/weeks.” A full list of changes for this release is available to view via the update log.

Read More