Waymo Robotaxis Crashed 68% Less Than Human Drivers in Three Major Cities, Study Finds— But One City Buck

Alphabet Inc.-backed (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Waymo robotaxis recorded 68% fewer police-reportable crashes per mile than human drivers across four U.S. markets, an independent study found, though Austin emerged as the only city where the autonomous fleet posted a higher rate.

Waymo Outperforms Humans In Three Cities

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety analyzed about 50 million fully driverless Waymo miles logged from 2021 through 2024 in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin, comparing them with roughly 222 billion human-driven miles in the same places and years.

Waymo’s crash rate came in 76% below human drivers in Phoenix, 71% lower in Los Angeles and 35% lower in San Francisco. Austin’s rate was 4% higher, but lead researcher Eric Teoh said the smaller sample prevented a firm conclusion.

"What we’re seeing is a nice pattern — fewer crashes overall, less egregious types of crashes, and less severe crashes," Teoh said in a press release.