Are self-driving cars safer than those operated by human drivers? According to Mashable, data gathered from Google’s self-driving Prius and Lexus shows the cars are safer driving themselves than when driven by a human.
The leader of Google’s autonomous-car project presented the results from two studies of data from the hundreds of thousands of miles the self-driving cars have been driven on roads in California and Nevada.
According to the data, the cars accelerated and braked more sharply when a human was driving them in comparison to when the cars drove themselves.
The data also showed that the self-driving cars were better at maintaining a safe distance from other cars than when driven by humans, according to Mashable.
Google added elements to the dashboard that alert the human driver to what the car is doing and when the human might want to take over.
According to Mashable, Google has been testing the cars on public roads since 2010. The cars always have a human driver behind the wheel who can take over if needed. Google said it is thinking of different ways it could potentially take cars to market.