Self-Driving Cars

TRB Briefing, Irvine CA, July 2012

Alex

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Toyota Prius Saved Alex

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It’s all about safety

•
>90% of collision caused by human error
•
32,788 fatalities per year in 2010
•
~1,500,000 per year world wide

We make a big difference

Why Google?

solutions

that have

huge impact

on humanity

. challenging. technical. problems

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Driving as the distraction

This guy is the reason we come to work in the morning.

"For some, driving is the distraction"

- Allan Taub, ex-VP GM

People already living in their cars

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Trumpet practice?

Self Driving Car: 1957

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Outside of test car

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laser

encoder

radar

computer

GPS

camera

drive by wire

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What does chauffeur “see”?

What does chauffeur “see”?

Dogfooding

My Commute

•
14 minutes driving
•
45 minutes “autodriving”
•
8 control transfers
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Time to Collision

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TTC=-(Instantaneous Range)/(Instantaneous RangeRate) If both vehicles continued traveling at the same constant speeds they were traveling when TTC is measured, the collision would occur after a time of TTC.

Time to Collision (cdf) (seconds)

Data is filtered to events where TTC <= 15s 100 car naturalistic study included TTC <= 4s for “near-miss” event

Time to Collision (<=7.5 seconds)

Estimated Safety Benefits

•Analysis based on NHTSA “Pre-Crash Scenario Typology for Crash Avoidance Research”
•For Highway relevant scenarios
–71% fewer crashes
–65% fewer injuries
–81% fewer fatalities

NHTSA, report published in 2007, based on 2004 GES data Initial analysis using 37 types of crashes, highway use of our technology

Team

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Our mission is:

Improve people’s lives by transforming mobility