Here's why 'Fast and Furious' driverless cars aren't as crazy as they sound

Self-driving cars will rarely have to deal with a pack of drivers who think they are in a “Fast and Furious” movie, but training them to do so might just be what it takes to reach true autonomy.

But sending driverless vehicles drifting around curves at high speeds isn’t exactly practical or safe. That’s why Ascent Robotics Inc. is building a virtual simulation that it believes will help create self-driving automobiles capable of handling any scenario, however unlikely. The Tokyo-based startup is raising 1.1 billion yen ($10 million) in its first funding round, led by SBI Investment Co.

The total distance traveled by driverless vehicles on public roads has long been considered the main metric of progress in the industry. By that measure alone, the 8 million kilometers (5 million miles) logged by Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo would appear to be an insurmountable lead. Ascent is betting that only a fraction of that data is actually useful enough for training autonomous cars, because it’s the rare, unexpected events that matter the most.