Alphabet Google: Just Helping the Public
March 17, 2021
I usually don’t read insurance industry trade publications. Decades ago I brushed into the world of “real” insurance, and I have a deep aversion for this industry. Betting on death is not my thing, but those big insurers are a jolly group.
I read “Alphabet’s Waymo Says Its Tech Would Avoid Fatal Human Crashes.” For convenience, I will refer to Alphabet Waymo with its “real” name: The Google.
The write up explains:
The autonomous-car artificial intelligence from Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo avoided or mitigated crashes in most of a set of virtually recreated fatal accidents, according to a white paper the company published Monday.
This is lingo for a model, just like the ones “real” MBAs and alleged “data scientists” run using Excel or a facsimile on steroids. The model ingests assumptions and data. The wizard at the keyboard pretty much plugs in threshold values and checks the output. Need a little more oomph; change the threshold. Once the numbers flow. Bingo. Good to go.
What I found interesting was this passage in the insurance industry centric PR piece of marketing collateral:
Waymo says it published the study for the benefit of the public, rather than regulators specifically.
But can you die riding in a smart EV from The Google?
Absolutely. The write up reports:
The Driver system failed to avoid or mitigate simulated accidents only when the autonomous car was struck from behind, according to the study.
No problems. Adjust those actuarial tables accordingly. Come to think of it, “Why use human actuaries?” Take the output from The Google’s model and pump it into a smart analytics program and let ‘er rip.
Stephen E Arnold, March 17, 2021
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