3 ms·
Reading it, I think it is essentially a 'before October 2015' vs 'after October 2015' comparison of overall accident rates, given the caveats there. So the -40%
by gwern 10y ago
Reading it, I think it is essentially a 'before October 2015' vs 'after October 2015' comparison of overall accident rates, given the caveats there. So the -40% here should be a lower bound, since it includes a time period with 0% Autopilot usage (before October 2015) and a time period with an unknown but <100% Autopilot usage (after October 2015). If people after October 2015 used Autopilot for 50% of their mileage, then you'd expect the true effect of Autopilot to be more like -80%.
This strikes me as suspiciously high: what fraction of airbag-worth accidents are supposed to happen on the highways where one can use Autopilot at all? So maybe there's some other trend going on which is driving this decrease.
- OrwellianChild 10y agoThis accident reduction is driven not by the auto-driving part of the package, but the emergency response part. The autonomous breaking and evasive steering that occurs when an accident is imminent is what is preventing accidents.
- usrusr 10y agoAlso, airbag activation isn't a perfect proxy for accident rate. Passenger safety is only a subset of vehicle safety.