USA: Researchers want to cut autonomous car testing time by 99%

Researchers out of the University of Michigan believe they have developed a process by which autonomous cars can be tested thoroughly in a fraction of the time. In fact, their proposal would reduce autonomous car testing time by as much as 99%.

Autonomous cars are coming, but how soon depends on factors like regulation, development, and testing. Testing is one of the most time-consuming steps in the process of innovation and going to market with an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle.

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Regulatory red tape aside, it takes a long time to test autonomous vehicles. Google, one of the early innovators in self-driving car technology has logged over 3 million miles during its extensive testing period has been going on for years. Last year, Google’s self-driving car project received a new name, Waymo.

This 3 million miles of testing doesn’t include the over 1 billion miles that have been logged on Waymo’s virtual testing simulator during 2016 alone.

For anyone keeping count, that’s a lot of testing. In an industry where sub-par testing can have catastrophic consequence, cutting corners is not an option.