Waymo Robotaxis Are Much Safer — Part Deux

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Whoops — I wrote about a study from 2024 showing that Waymo robotaxis were proving to be safer than human-driven cars, but I didn’t catch at that time that Waymo had just published a blog on a newer study again showing Waymo robotaxis are safer than human drivers. In particular, this one highlights how much safer Waymo robotaxis are for bicyclists and predestrians.

“The path to Vision Zero requires reducing severe crashes and improving the safety of those most at risk. Our latest research paper shows that the Waymo Driver is making significant strides in both areas. By reducing the most dangerous crashes and providing better protection for pedestrians, cyclists, and other vulnerable road users, Waymo is making streets safer in cities where it operates,” Waymo writes. But across the board, Waymo robotaxis are cutting down the number of crashes and the number of serious crashes.

“The paper, accepted to be published in the Traffic Injury Prevention Journal, expands on our Safety Impact Hub research, providing a deeper analysis of Waymo’s performance across 11 different crash types compared to human drivers. It also offers new insights into Waymo’s positive impact on serious injury crash rates.”

There are a variety of interesting findings from the research, which is based on millions of miles of driving. Here’s more from Waymo:

“The research finds that, compared to human benchmarks over 56.7 million miles and regardless of who was at fault, the Waymo Driver had:

• • Safer interactions with vulnerable road users (VRUs) with substantial reductions in crashes involving injuries among pedestrians (92% reduction), cyclists (82% reduction), and motorcyclists (82% reduction).
  • 96% fewer injury-involving intersection crashes, which, according to NHTSA, are a leading cause of severe road harm for human drivers. This reduction can be largely attributed to the Waymo Driver’s ability to detect and appropriately respond to vehicles running a red light.
  • 85% fewer crashes with suspected serious or worse injuries. Building on our previous research, which demonstrated Waymo’s significant reductions across all injuries combined, the new study provides early evidence for similar benefits in serious injuries alone. The results are statistically significant but because serious injury cases are, fortunately, rare, they’re based on a small number of events. We will continue to monitor outcomes and gain greater confidence as we accumulate more miles.”

How can you not love that? These are the stats you want to see. The intersection crashes are particularly interesting and exciting. How many crashes do you see that occurred because of someone running a red light? The Waymo Driver’s ability to see a car likely to run a red light and avoid it is super promising — or I should say comforting, since it’s already cutting down on crashes, serious crashes, and fatalities. It would be wonderful to see Waymo’s numbers grow exponentially and those stats drop accordingly.

“It’s encouraging to see real-world data showing Waymo outperforming human drivers when it comes to safety. Fewer crashes and fewer injuries — especially for people walking and biking — is exactly the kind of progress we want to see from autonomous vehicles,” Jonathan Adkins, Chief Executive Officer at Governors Highway Safety Association, commented.

Again, you can find the full study here. You can also find more in Waymo’s safety data hub.