Waymo is way, way ahead on testing miles—that might not be a good thing

Enlarge / A Waymo self-driving car doing its thing in May 2019. (credit: Picture Alliance / Getty Images)

Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving company, has logged 20 million miles on public roads, the company announced in a Tuesday press statement. The new milestone comes just 15 months after Waymo hit the 10 million mile mark in October 2018.

The latest figure puts Waymo far, far ahead of its rivals. I noted 15 months ago that only one company had announced even 1 million miles of driving—and that was Uber, which was forced to scale back its testing after a fatal crash. Today, the story is largely the same; if anyone else in the self-driving industry has cracked a million miles of on-road driving, I haven’t seen the press release.

Back in 2018, I reported that most of Waymo’s rivals are quick to dismiss the significance of testing miles. Today (as in 2018), they argue that quality of testing miles matters more than quantity.