Self-driving vehicles have more crashes than regular cars

Self-driving vehicles have more crashes than regular cars

A recent study by researchers at the University of Michigan showed that autonomous vehicles have a higher crash rate per million miles traveled than conventional vehicles, with more injuries per million miles and injuries per crash. But the autonomous vehicles were not at fault in any of the crashes they were involved in. And the severity of the injuries was lower for autonomous vehicles.

The researchers, Brandon Schoettle and Michael Sivak, looked at the real-world driving experience of three companies operating autonomous vehicles, Google, Delphi and Audi. Researchers point out that the total distance those vehicles have driven is still relatively low, about 1.2 million miles. And they have driven in less demanding conditions for example, not on snowy roads.