[SystemSafety] Waymo cars coming to London

[Prof. Dr. Peter Bernard Ladkin]

On 2025-10-15 23:23 , Derek M Jones wrote:
>
> In a few weeks Waymo cars will be on London streets.
> https://waymo.com/waymo-in-uk
> They are claimed to be safer than human drivers.

Waymo has been operating in SF for some time, as well as parts of Phoenix and LA I understand. The 
claim that they are safer than human drivers is based directly on the data they have collected from 
those ops. The claim is valid for that environment, as far as I can tell.

GM had also introduced its Cruise driverless vehicles in SF, but they got into some trouble and GM 
has now cancelled its driverless-taxi project.

SF is not full of cyclists in the way in which London is, so I think your concern for the different 
environment is appropriate. I'm sure Waymo have been paying attention to it, They appear to me to be 
going about expanding their operations carefully and incrementally.

Me, I am hoping they will be successful. The automated vehicles drive slowly, deliberately and 
carefully and adhere to all traffic restrictions. When they are in the traffic mix, it seems (and 
this is just a seat-of-the-pants observation, not analysis) that surrounding human drivers pay more 
attention, not only to other traffic but also to applicable regulation. There is, for example, no 
point in tailgating a Waymo vehicle to try to force it to speed up. It won't.

PBL

Prof. i.R. Dr. Peter Bernard Ladkin, Bielefeld, Germany
www.rvs-bi.de