Well, have no fear because the future is here and it comes with four wheels (and sometimes eight) AVs! But before we all jump on this bandwagon, let’s take a closer look at their reliability and safety.

To start: what exactly are AVs? They’re autonomous vehicles that can navigate roads without human intervention. Sounds pretty cool, right? Well, not so fast (pun intended). According to recent studies, these babies have been involved in some pretty hair-raising incidents. For instance, a Tesla Model X crashed into a safety barrier in California last year, killing the driver who was supposedly using the car’s “Autopilot” feature at the time of impact.

Now, statistics. According to a report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), human error is responsible for 94% of all traffic accidents in the US. So it stands to reason that AVs should be safer than traditional cars, right? Well, not necessarily. In fact, some studies suggest that AVs may actually have a higher accident rate per mile driven due to their complexity and reliance on technology.

But don’t worry, We’re here to help you navigate the rollercoaster ride of AV reliability and safety with statistical analysis. Let’s dig into this at some key metrics that can help us understand how safe (or not) these babies really are:

1. Accident rate per million miles driven This metric measures the number of accidents involving an AV for every one million miles it travels. According to a report by the Society of Automotive Engineers, AVs had an accident rate of 34 incidents per million miles in 2018. That may sound high, but it’s actually lower than the human-driven car average of 79 accidents per million miles.

2. Fatalities per billion vehicle miles traveled This metric measures the number of fatalities involving an AV for every one billion vehicle miles traveled. According to a report by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), there were no fatalities involving an AV in 2018, which is pretty impressive considering that over 37,000 people died in car accidents during that same year.

3. Time between incidents This metric measures how long it takes for an AV to have another accident after its last one. According to a report by the NHTSA, some AVs had gone up to 15 months without experiencing any kind of incident. That’s pretty impressive considering that human-driven cars typically experience accidents every few years.

4. Percentage of incidents caused by software errors This metric measures how often an accident involving an AV is caused by a software error rather than a hardware failure or human intervention. According to a report by the NTSB, 83% of all AV-related incidents in 2018 were caused by software errors.

And who knows? Maybe one day we’ll all be cruising down the highway in our very own AVs without a care in the world!

Until then, stay safe out there and keep your eyes peeled for those ***** software errors.