And Waze doesn’t need a professional troll to go around garnering media support 24/7.
* Operates in a tiny geographically fenced area
* Despite success, has not expanded to any new areas or rolled out any further.
* As a consumer, I have no access to buy Waymo, but I can buy at least the current implementation of Tesla Autopilot.
My understanding is that Tesla is extremely behind on these fronts compared to Waymo, and that gap keeps widening every day. I know who I would bet on
I believe Waymo works better in a pre scanned area, where there are no construction sites or major changes, but in a general context you can atleast attempt to use Autopilot, which you can't with Waymo. Thus I would not say that Waymo is miles better.
I had the great fortune of living in "Old Palo Alto" (think "mega rich tech CEO paradise") for a year while my wife was at Stanford. This is a grid of low-traffic, low-speed, sidewalked residential streets, ~10 minutes on all sides from the nearest highway, with typical mid-Peninsula weather (in other words, essentially perfect driving conditions).
I would would frequently see Waymo vehicles going all through the neighborhood at 6-9AM on Sunday mornings when I was out on long runs. They would often be essentially the only cars I saw on the road.
If there is a better way to pad your urban safety statistics, I do not know of one.
Old Palo Alto on Google Maps, for the curious/unfamiliar: https://goo.gl/maps/cAqifusdRL647YgWA