Skip to main content

An analysis of real-world crashes involving self-driving vehicles

A study by the University of Michigan performed a preliminary analysis of the cumulative on-road safety record of self-driving vehicles for three of the ten companies that are currently approved for such vehicle testing in California (Google, Delphi, and Audi). The analysis compared the safety record of these vehicles with the safety record of all conventional vehicles in the US for 2013 (adjusted for underreporting of crashes that do not involve a fatality).
October 30, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
A study by the University of Michigan performed a preliminary analysis of the cumulative on-road safety record of self-driving vehicles for three of the ten companies that are currently approved for such vehicle testing in California (1691 Google, 7207 Delphi, and 2125 Audi).

The analysis compared the safety record of these vehicles with the safety record of all conventional vehicles in the US for 2013 (adjusted for underreporting of crashes that do not involve a fatality).

Taking into account the fact that the distance accumulated by self-driving vehicles is still relatively low compared with conventional vehicles and that the vehicles were driven only in limited conditions, the study came up with some interesting results.

These, including the facts that self-driving vehicles may have a higher crash rate per million miles travelled than conventional vehicles, and self-driving vehicles were not at fault in any crashes they were involved in, are available in the report abstract on the university’s website. (link %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal http://www.umich.edu/~umtriswt/PDF/UMTRI-2015-34_Abstract_English.pdf Visit Umich false http://www.umich.edu/~umtriswt/PDF/UMTRI-2015-34_Abstract_English.pdf false false%>).

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • New IEEE standard supports connected vehicle deployment
    May 3, 2016
    The IEEE has published is 1609.3-2016 Standard for Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE) - Networking Services, which defines network and transport layer services that support secure WAVE data exchange, including addressing and routing.
  • Car2Go launches e-car rental service in central Paris
    January 17, 2019
    Daimler subsidiary Car2go has made its electric car rental service available to Parisian users in a 77km square area within the city’s Périphérique motorway. Drivers are charged between €0.24 to €0.34 per minute depending on the location and time of the rental, and can charge the vehicles at around 1,100 charging stations in the French capital. The details flesh out Car2go’s announcement last year of plans to deploy 400 electric Smart EQ Fortwo vehicles in the city. The company intends to add more ve
  • Citilog and Signal Group sign strategic alliance
    March 26, 2014
    France’s Citilog and Signal Group of the US yesterday signed a ‘strategic alliance’ to combine their technologies, with the aim of delivering advanced ITS video analytics solutions to the North American market. Citilog will combine its capabilities in video analytics with Signal Group’s expertise in traffic controllers, with the first product designed to reduce traffic waiting times at intersections through the integration of real-time queue length calculation into adaptive intersection control.
  • Japan to equip 5G base stations on traffic lights
    June 24, 2019
    The Government of Japan is to install 5G wireless communications base stations on traffic signals nationwide by 2025. A report by The Japan News says the project is expected to reduce costs for telecommunications service providers. As part of the project, traffic signals will be equipped with devices to measure the amount of traffic. The information sent from the stations to the vehicles is expected to support autonomous driving. Japan is not the only company looking to harness the potential of 5G. In F