[emodendroket]

Waymo measures their disengagements differently than the competition.

https://blog.piekniewski.info/2017/05/11/a-car-safety-myths-...

> Now it is important to note that the definition of a "disengagement event" may vary between companies. Most companies report every case in which a human grabs the wheel for any reason. Waymo (*) only reports the events, in which if not for the human intervention the car would actually cause a dangerous situation [read more here]. The way they do it, is for every physical disengagement they gather all the sensor data and next simulate multiple scenarios. If these scenarios lead to a dangerous situation, such event is being reported. According to Waymo in 2016 nine events would have lead to the car hitting an obstacle or another road user, approximately 1/10 of all disengagements they've reported (124). Hence there is such a gap between Waymo and the rest of the pack.

I also think it's hard to generalize from Waymo employees being attentive and general road users achieving the same thing.