Shift Magazine - Issue 1 2018 - 20

WAYMO VS. GM
Waymo's fully self-driving
reference vehicle, Firefly 1

Waymo/Google

2016

2017

No. of test vehicles

635,868

352,545

Miles driven
Accidents
Disengagements

124

Avg. miles per
vehicle

8,478

4,701

De-activations per
1,000 miles

0.20

0.18

2016*

2017

10,015

131,676

Cruise/GM
No. of test vehicles
Miles driven
Accidents

Disengagements

284

105

Avg. miles per
vehicle

401

1,401

28.36

0.80

De-activations per
1,000 miles
"Simulation is a powerful tool," says Cruise Automation CEO Kyle Vogt, center, with Cruise
co-founder Daniel Kan, left, and GM President Dan Ammann.

BATTLE, continued from p. 18
expertise, while it has quietly become the
auto industry's leader in data collection and
optimization - key areas for monetizing
autonomous vehicles.
The Detroit automaker, which has produced 180 self-driving prototypes, expects
to produce and deploy a fleet of self-driving
vehicles based on its Chevrolet Bolt EV in
2019. Prototypes of the vehicles have been
built at its suburban Detroit assembly plant
- making the factory the only mass-production plant to produce such vehicles.
The proving ground and road testing are
GM's traditional strengths. The company
also is using simulations and testing similar to Waymo but it's believed to be relying
more than the tech rival on physical testing
in Arizona, California and Michigan.
Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said the company
has the capability to run 150 simulations
per minute in its virtual world, using a
"number of different simulators" that "exercise various pieces of the autonomous vehicle software stack."
"Simulation is a powerful tool when coupled with on-road testing to achieve, and
then demonstrate, the level of performance

shift * may 2018

required to launch commercial product,"
Vogt said.
Unlike Waymo, GM has not released
its total miles driven. According to the
California Department of Motor Vehicles,
which requires companies to file accident
and disengagement reports based on
autonomous miles driven, Cruise vehicles
autonomously drove 141,691 miles in the
state from June 2015 to November 2017.
Vogt in November said the automaker
planned to achieve 1 million miles per month
by early 2018. It's unclear if that milestone
has been reached, as GM has released no
updates and declined to comment on the
progress.
"GM has made a lot of promises; based
on their promises they seem very far ahead,"
said Mike Ramsey, an analyst at research
firm Gartner Inc. But, he added, it's hard to
know for sure. "GM has definitely convinced
people, I think, that they are far down the
road but let's be honest. It's actually really,
really hard to know how advanced these
vehicles are."
GM has about 1,600 people working on
autonomous vehicles, including more than
600 at Cruise. The company plans to add
1,100 workers from 2017-22 at Cruise.

Dates are from December-November unless noted.
*June 2015 - November 2016

PUBLIC DATA

The California DMV provides just a partial
view of GM's and Waymo's testing progress
because it does not include activities outside
the state.
Waymo, which has shifted much of its
testing to Arizona, reports it drove 352,545
miles in autonomous mode in California in 75
vehicles from Dec. 1, 2016, to Nov. 30, 2017.
Cruise, during the same period, drove
131,676 miles on San Francisco's city
streets in 94 Cruise AV cars, which are
based on the Bolt.
The number of disengagements during
that period: Waymo 63, Cruise 105. The DMV
defines a disengagement as "a deactivation
of the autonomous mode when a failure of
the autonomous technology is detected
or when the safe operation of the vehicle
requires that the autonomous vehicle test
driver disengage the autonomous mode
and take immediate manual control of the
vehicle."
Based on the number of disengagements
compared with miles driven, Cruise is about
where Waymo was in 2015. But Cruise is
testing in San Francisco, a far more complex
area than Waymo's testing area then, primarily around its headquarters.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Shift Magazine - Issue 1 2018