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Two corporations are the leaders in autonomous automobile (AV) investments and are planning to begin robotaxi deployment in San Francisco as quickly as all of the permits can be found — Waymo and Cruise. This column compares their effort based mostly on the general public information that’s out there from California Division of Motor Automobiles (DMV). A later column will discover further information from California Public Utility Fee (PUC).
These two California companies have oversight of the AV testing actions and primarily management when robotaxi providers are launched in California. At the moment, each Waymo and Cruise have taken a number of steps on the trail to supply driverless robotaxi providers in San Francisco.
The subsequent desk summarizes how the AV efforts of Waymo and Cruise stack up, with a concentrate on the general public information out there for California.
Waymo has testing efforts in three AV use circumstances: robotaxis, robotrucks, and items supply by vehicles and vans. Robotaxi is the main use case for Cruise, with items supply by automobiles, vans, and small vehicles as a secondary focus.
Traders: A complete of 12 corporations have invested $5.5 billion in Waymo, in keeping with Crunchbase, together with many VC corporations. Alphabet is the dad or mum firm of Waymo and is its major investor.
Cruise has 46 buyers based mostly on Crunchbase information with a price exceeding $15 billion, together with debt financing. GM is the dad or mum firm and is the main investor. Honda can also be a significant investor and can use Cruise AV know-how. Microsoft and Walmart have invested in Cruise. As a part of the Microsoft funding, Cruise will use Microsoft Azure cloud know-how.
OEM companions: Waymo has a different group of automotive OEM companions with Nissan, Renault, Stellantis, and Volvo automobiles. Waymo has Daimler vehicles as a companion for its autonomous truck group.
Cruise has two main automotive OEMs as companions: GM and Honda. Each corporations are working collectively in growing robotaxis and different AVs. Cruise is just not investing in autonomous vehicles however is more likely to get companions for items deliveries utilizing vans and small vehicles.
Items supply companions: Waymo is working with a number of logistics corporations for autonomous vehicles, together with AutoNation, CH Robinson, JB Hunt, and UPS. Walmart and Safeway are companions for items supply utilizing minivans and related automobiles.
Cruise is working with Walmart for items supply utilizing automobiles, with vans more likely to be added.
Robotaxi pilots: Each corporations are leaders in robotaxi testing and pilot packages. Waymo was the primary firm to begin a robotaxi pilot within the Chandler space, close to Phoenix, in 2018. A lot of the robotaxi service is now with driverless AVs. Waymo is beginning robotaxi trials in downtown Phoenix.
Waymo is now increasing its robotaxi testing to San Francisco and has a pilot program began with security drivers, or “drivered” in California PUC terminology. Waymo is taking a look at Los Angeles and possibly New York for future robotaxi testing.
Cruise has centered most of its robotaxi testing in San Francisco and at the moment has permits for each drivered and driverless testing in San Francisco. Cruise has additionally examined its robotaxis within the Phoenix space.
California information
Desk 1 summarizes AV testing information in California. As of March 2022, Waymo had permits for 630 drivered AVs and 71 driverless AVs. Cruise had permits for 236 drivered AVs and 52 driverless AVs.
From 2015 to 2021, Waymo drove 7.1 million miles within the California DMV AV testing program. Waymo’s share of all AV miles was 56.3% through the seven–yr timeframe. Cruise began in 2016 and lined 3.06 million AV miles by means of its six–yr testing. Cruise had a share of 24.3% of whole AV miles by all corporations that check AVs in California.
California PUC began AV testing in 2019 and revealed quarterly outcomes. The newest information ending in February 2022 was posted in April. Waymo drove 2.7 million miles from July 2019 by means of February 2022 and accounted for over 95% of the entire AV miles. All of Waymo’s AV miles had been by drivered AVs.
Cruise obtained its PUC allow for drivered AVs in late 2019 and for driverless AVs in late 2021. Cruise is now centered on driverless AVs and stopped its drivered testing in San Francisco in December 2021. Cruise had solely pushed its PUC AVs a complete of 4,700 miles by finish of February 2022.
The California AV check outcomes are probably the most complete public AV information anyplace. There are seven years of historic information. The subsequent desk exhibits abstract information by yr for Waymo, Cruise, and a complete for all AV corporations that participated.
For those who want extra element, two columns cowl the final two years. The 2021 information is roofed in this column; the 2020 information is obtainable in this column.
The subsequent desk summarizes AV permits, AV miles pushed, and common miles between disengagements.
The information is obtainable right here. The month-to-month spreadsheet information contains AV testing for one yr from December by means of November within the following yr.
Corporations with AV miles: The variety of corporations testing AVs in California grew from eight in 2015 to a peak of 48 in 2018. Complete AV testing corporations declined to 31 in 2020 and 25 in 2021. There are extra corporations with AV testing permits, however many don’t check annually. At the moment, 47 corporations have permits to check AVs with a security driver within the driver seat.
AV permits: The whole variety of AV permits grew from 71 in 2015 to 1,173 in 2021. Waymo has had probably the most AV permits, besides in 2017 and 2018, when Cruise had probably the most. In 2021, Waymo had 693 AV permits, or 59% of whole permits. In 2021, Cruise had 138 AV permits, which is 12% of the entire.
AV miles: Complete AV miles was 451,000 in 2015 and grew to over 2 million miles in 2018 and practically 2.9 million miles in 2019. Then got here the pandemic in 2020, and whole AV miles dropped beneath 2 million miles. Complete AV miles greater than doubled in 2021 to just about 4.1 million miles.
Waymo has been the chief in AV miles yearly besides 2020, when Cruise was the chief. In 2015, Waymo accounted for 94% of whole AV miles (424,000 miles). In 2016, Waymo was much more dominant at over 96% of whole miles (635,000 miles). In 2017, Waymo’s AV miles dropped to 363,000, which might be on account of its effort to begin robotaxi testing within the Phoenix space in 2018. Waymo AV miles reached practically 1.3 million miles in 2018 and over 1.4 million miles in 2019. In 2020, Waymo AV miles dropped to 628,000, with a share of 31.5% of all AV miles. Waymo got here again strongly in 2021, with over 2.3 million miles and practically 57% of whole AV miles.
Cruise began slowly with lower than 10,000 AV miles in 2016, which jumped to 130,000 in 2017. Cruise greater than tripled its AV mile in 2018 to 448,000 and practically doubled in 2019 to 832,000 AV miles. Cruise was the AV miles chief in 2020 with 770,000 miles, or practically 39% of whole miles. This was on account of Cruise offering intensive deliveries of wanted items through the pandemic in San Francisco. Cruise AV miles reached its highest stage in 2021 at 876,000, or 21% of whole AV miles.
Cumulative AV miles: This part provides the cumulative miles by yr. Complete California DMV miles topped 1.1 million miles in 2016 and surpassed 3.6 million in 2018. Sturdy progress continued in 2019 to over 6.5 million and eight.5 million in 2020. Cumulative AV miles topped 12.6 million in 2021.
Waymo has been the chief in cumulative AV miles yearly and has accounted for not less than 56% of whole AV miles in yearly. Waymo’s cumulative AV miles share has declined from over 95% in 2015 and 2016 to 63.5% in 2019. In 2021 Waymo’s cumulative AV miles topped 7.1 million, with a 56.3% share of whole miles.
Cruise is now a robust second in cumulative AV miles, surpassing 1.4 million miles in 2019 and reaching 3.06 million miles in 2021, with a share of 24.3%.
AV miles per disengagement: Disengagement is when the security driver takes management of driving the AV. This will likely occur if the AV software program driver arms management over to the security driver. Or the security driver takes management if it seems just like the software program driver can’t deal with a near-term driving state of affairs.
The common miles per disengagement is a measure of the competence of the software program driver. The extra miles per disengagement, the higher the aptitude of the software program driver. It’s the solely measurement that’s publicly out there, however way more information is required for assessing a software program driver platform.
Waymo and Cruise have a lot greater miles per disengagement than the entire for all AV contributors. Within the 2015 to 2017 timeframe, whole miles per disengagement ranged from 163 to 259, whereas Waymo grew from 1,254 miles in 2015 to five,596 in 2017. Cruise reached 1,236 miles per disengagement in 2017.
In 2018, Apple and Uber had extraordinarily excessive disengagements, with 97% of all disengagement however lower than 3% of AV miles. With Apple and Uber included, the entire miles per disengagement was solely 14. Excluding Apple and Uber give 477 miles per disengagement. Complete miles per disengagement declined to 308 in 2019 however grew strongly in 2020. Perhaps the pandemic in 2020 with much less site visitors made it simpler to drive for the software program drivers.
In 2021, whole miles per disengagement jumped by practically 3× and reached 1,571 AV miles between disengagements. This enchancment might be on account of fewer AV testing corporations and just one newcomer, Apollo, which had intensive expertise from China AV testing.
Waymo’s miles per disengagement was on a robust progress path from 1,254 in 2015 to just about 30,000 in 2020. Then got here 2021, when miles per disengagement declined to beneath 8,000. This can be partially on account of elevated AV testing in San Francisco, however it’s nonetheless unclear why there was such an enormous drop.
This provides Cruise a lead over Waymo in 2021 with over 41,700 miles per disengagement — up from 28,500 in 2020. Cruise has carried out its AV testing in San Francisco since 2016.
Closing feedback
The yearly AV testing information from the California DMV is among the few sources of public information, and it has probably the most historic data. This makes it an necessary supply for analyzing the standing of AVs within the U.S.
It’s clear that Waymo and Cruise are the leaders in AV testing in California. They lead in AVs used, AV miles pushed, and in getting permits for robotaxi pilot testing.
Each Waymo and Cruise are wanting to get began with paid driverless robotaxi service in San Francisco. The subsequent column will take a look at California PUC information and different data for Waymo and Cruise.
