As you correctly point out disengagements <i>may</i> not be the equivalent of falling asleep: they might simply be the equivalent of the driving instructor adjudging the learner at the wheel to be looking a bit too nervous, or just not ready for the junction that&#x27;s coming up yet. And yes, its assumptions on the type of &quot;software discrepancy&quot; and &quot;unwanted maneuver&quot; that prompt human input are conservative by design.<p>But the report actually goes so far to points out that on at least 13 of those occasions Google believes that without human intervention <i>a crash would have occurred</i>. It also implies that only 3 of those situations were created by poor driving on the part of another human. That&#x27;s a definite crash due to Google car error averted every ~40k miles, even though humans already take over whenever there&#x27;s a software warning, a spot of rain or something else that they think might stretch its capabilities too much.<p>The average US driver has 1 accident per 165000 miles (which, like the unusual tendency for the Google car to get bumped when stopping at junctions, may or may not be their fault) and that&#x27;s including DUI as well as people driving in slightly more difficult conditions than sunny surburban California.