Waymo reaches 5 million self-driven miles
The Waymo odometer rolled over to 5,000,000 in February: our self-driving cars have now covered five million miles on public roads.
That’s a major milestone. Yet what’s really exciting for us is how we’re picking up speed. Our 1st million miles took six years to complete. Our 4th million miles took six months, and this 5th million took just under three months. Today we’re driving as many miles in one day as the average American adult drives in a whole year.
We’re driving more and learning faster, and we’re doing it in increasingly diverse conditions. We’ve now test driven in 25 U.S. cities, gaining experience in different weather conditions and terrains: from the snowy streets of Michigan, to the steep hills of San Francisco, to the desert conditions of Greater Phoenix. And because the lessons we learn from one vehicle can be shared with the entire fleet, every new mile counts even more.
What’s more, that real-world experience is multiplied on our private test track and in simulation. Last year alone our software drove 2.7 billion miles in the virtual world, where we create and test entirely new driving scenarios for extra practice.