Waymo created a “Reference Driver” model to evaluate robotaxi performance against humans

Friends, I’d like to share news from autonomous driving: Waymo and TU Delft have introduced a new driver-behaviour model — the Reference Driver.

- What they did: an active-inference–based model reproducing human behaviour leading up to collisions, not only last-moment reactive maneuvers.
- Why: it provides a realistic benchmark to compare robots and humans in crash scenarios.
- How it’s used: the code is open for academic research under a non-commercial license.

Why it matters: an accurate human-behaviour model is critical for assessing safety and transparency as robotaxi services scale.

Do you think this will improve trust among regulators and the public?

#autonomousvehicles #robotaxi #safety #AI