A recent study by the U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety revealed that Waymo’s autonomous vehicles were involved in 68% fewer crashes compared to human drivers in San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Austin over a three-year period from 2021 to 2024. During this time, there were 89 police-reportable crashes involving Waymo vehicles in these cities, while human-caused crashes totaled 901,525, excluding incidents on interstates and highways.
Steven Waslander, the director of the University of Toronto Robotics Institute, highlighted the significance of seeing autonomous technology being utilized in real-world scenarios. Of the Waymo-involved crashes, 72% occurred when the vehicle was operating without a driver, with around half having passengers on board. The study reported that Waymo vehicles covered approximately 80 million kilometers in driverless mode, in contrast to human drivers who traveled 355 billion kilometers in the same areas during the same period.
The research compared crash rates per million vehicle miles traveled, indicating that Waymo vehicles had a rate of 1.28 crashes per million miles, significantly lower than the human driver rate of 4.06 crashes per million miles. The study utilized data collected from police reports, Waymo, and federal databases to analyze Alphabet’s driverless vehicle performance.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, crashes involving autonomous vehicles must be reported if automated driving systems were in use within 30 seconds of the incident and resulted in specific property damage or injuries. Waymo currently operates in 11 U.S. states and plans to expand to the United Kingdom and Japan, with lobbying efforts underway in Canada.
Eric Teoh, the director of statistical services at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, emphasized the positive outlook for driverless vehicles based on the study results, noting that Waymo vehicles were involved in fewer severe crashes compared to human-driven vehicles. Teoh suggested that governments should enhance the availability and clarity of datasets related to autonomous vehicles to promote transparency.
However, Waymo faces challenges in penetrating the Canadian market due to regulatory barriers and concerns about potential job displacement. Climate conditions, particularly harsh winters, pose additional obstacles for autonomous vehicle operations in Canada. Despite the promising safety statistics of Waymo vehicles, instances of technical mishaps have raised doubts among the public and experts regarding their readiness for widespread adoption.
Andrew Miller, the author of “The End of Driving,” emphasized the ongoing learning process for driverless vehicles, noting that they may struggle with certain real-world scenarios. Miller suggested that while autonomous vehicles may become more common in urban areas by 2030, widespread adoption is still a work in progress.