Over 2M Calif. Miles Covered by Self-Driving Cars in 2018

Twenty-eight companies actively tested 467 self-driving vehicles on public roads in California last year. Those vehicles covered 2,036,296 miles in autonomous mode.

The companies reported 143,720 disengagements. That’s the number of times the system had to turn control back to a human driver.

As Statista explained, "Disengagements are a key part of the testing process and they occur when a car's software detects a failure or a driver perceives a failure, resulting in control being seized." 

Google’s Waymo cars had the best track record, going an average of 11,154 miles between disengagements. GM Cruise was the only other company to average more than 5,000 miles before giving control back to the humans.

The worst performers during this period were Apple and Uber. The two of them combined accounted for 97 percent of all reported disengagements. Apple averaged just 1.1 miles between disengagements. For Uber, the average was less than half a mile.

Each weekday, Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day explores interesting and newsworthy topics at the intersection of culture, politics, and technology. Columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.

Scott Rasmussen is founder and president of the Rasmussen Media Group. He is the author of "Mad as Hell: How the Tea Party Movement Is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System," "In Search of Self-Governance," and "The People’s Money: How Voters Will Balance the Budget and Eliminate the Federal Debt." Read more reports from Scott Rasmussen — Click Here Now.