Unmanned vehicles Waymo traveled more than 16 billion kilometers ... but not on the ground

Practically there is no doubt that unmanned vehicles sooner or later become one of the main modes of transport. Indeed, many large companies like Uber or Yandex, does carry out tests on their versions of the autopilot. Not far behind them and Waymo, self-managed vehicles which have traveled more than 16 billion kilometers. At first glance it's just a huge figure! But as they say, there is a caveat.

How to test unmanned vehicles

According to representatives of Waymo, at the moment of its test drones dashed off more than 16 billion kilometers in the test virtual environment. What it is? This is a special program to simulate road conditions. In it, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week simulated a variety of driving situations. The simulation is able to recreate any environment. From complex emergencies to the dense traffic of huge metropolises.

"We've driven ten billion miles in simulation," says CTO Dmitri Dolgov at #TCMobility pic.twitter.com/NHtL90wJLX

- Waymo (@Waymo) July 10, 2019

To date, tests involving more than 25,000 virtual Waymo cars. All the data are at improving the autopilot control algorithms.

Self-cars have already gone to the streets

But do not think that Waymo limited to tests in a virtual reality. In fact, the company has and the real results that can boast. Although they are impressive not so much. Real drones during a test on real roads USA overcame a total distance of more than 16 million kilometers.

Read also: Unmanned vehicles driving around city streets unsupervised people.

But if unmanned cars successfully romp on real roads, why test them in a virtual environment? The answer to this question was given by CTO Waymo Dmitry Dolgov:

"At the moment in the United States there are only a few places where you can test the drones. And they are clearly not enough for learning neural networks. The number of hours, grooved on real and virtual road shows how our system works well. In the real world can be a lot of different situations on the road, all of which simply can not be modeled with the live test. When the system collects data from both sources, it becomes the most ready for any road conditions. "

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