Autonomous driving technology has the potential to dramatically improve road safety and save millions of lives now lost to traffic crashes. Yet, there are still no universally accepted approaches for evaluating the safety of autonomous driving systems. “How safe is safe enough?” and “How do autonomously driven vehicles perform compared to a human driver?” are questions frequently asked across the industry. Following the publication of the Waymo safety framework, real-world performance data, and the simulated reconstruction of fatal crashes, we are taking another important step in answering these complex questions. In our continuous effort to share more information about our safety approaches and metrics, we are releasing two new scientific papers that present methods to compare autonomous vehicle performance to human driving—an important component of determining the readiness of autonomous driving systems.

I’m so pleased to share that Elisa de Martel, a finance executive with 20+years of experience leading private and public companies, is joining Waymo as our Chief Financial Officer. Elisa brings powerful value to Waymo with her depth of financial leadership experience spanning both tech and traditional automotive industries. Elisa’s global, strategic perspective positions us well as we deploy and commercialize the Waymo Driver across multiple geographies and vehicle platforms.

Lidar — which helps the Waymo Driver perceive the world around it in 3D — has become more common than ever before. Car manufacturers are integrating it into driver-assist systems; phone manufacturers are using it to enhance augmented reality capabilities, and robot vacuums even rely on it to better map the layout of your home. At Waymo, lidar is core to our sensor suite, with its ability to perceive objects and other road users with industry-leading resolution, up to hundreds of meters away, across a range of conditions.

Editor’s note: Waymo One is the perfect match for Eva’s busy lifestyle. From running errands to exploring new parts of San Francisco, Waymo provides her the reliability and convenience she needs to get around. Read on to see how she’s enjoying the Trusted Tester program so far and hear some of her feedback for how the service can get even better.

Accessibility is something we care deeply about at Waymo, as our mission is to help improve road safety and mobility for all. As this topic is such a core part of what we do, we were honored to make it to the semifinals in the U.S. Department of Transportation Design Challenge. DOT’s goal was to generate design solutions that enable people with physical, sensory, and cognitive disabilities to use automated vehicles to access jobs, healthcare, and other critical destinations. The DOT is helping to further creative product thinking around inclusive mobility, and we’re proud of the features that we designed and integrated into our Waymo One service.

Waymo has welcomed interns for years at our offices in the US and UK to join us in contributing their expertise to further developing our autonomous driving system and helping us scale our business. While their backgrounds vary greatly, each and every one of our awesome interns brings unique perspectives, a desire to tackle challenging problems, and an interest in improving the world’s access to mobility.