Waymo is releasing new research that shows its fleet of driverless cars are dramatically better than humans at avoiding a wide range of collisions on public roads.
According to the peer-reviewed paper, which is set to be published in the Traffic Injury Prevention Journal, Waymo’s self-driving cars experienced 82% fewer crashes with bikers and motorcyclists compared to human drivers, and 92% fewer crashes with pedestrians.
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WATCH HERE“Waymo is just making the roads safer for everybody whether you ride in a Waymo or not,” said Kris Kusano, a Waymo engineer and one of the study’s authors. “This … is growing the body of evidence that automated vehicles – Waymo drivers in particular – is able to reduce the number of crashes that we see out there on the roads.”
The study reviewed six years worth of data from hundreds of Waymo’s driverless cars. The research examined more than 56 million miles traveled by Waymo’s vehicles, beginning when the cars first hit the road in Phoenix in 2019, all the way through the end of January 2025.
Over the years, the company has expanded its ride-hailing service to include San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin.
Waymo is also actively working to widen its reach across the Bay Area, including San Jose and area airports. The company has also announced plans to bring its self-driving fleet into Atlanta and Miami.
Waymo says its vehicles now average about one million additional miles traveled each week on public roads, which means the ride-hailing business has likely logged close to 70 million miles so far.
While 30 companies are currently permitted to test their driverless cars across California, Waymo remains the only one fully approved to carry paying passengers without anyone in the driver’s seat.
For its latest crash report, Waymo says it used accident data from police departments to tabulate just how often human drivers are getting into car wrecks and then compared those rates against its own.
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SIGN UP Transportation experts, however, have cautioned it may still be too early to draw any definitive safety conclusions since driverless vehicles remain relatively new and have not traveled anywhere close to the three trillion miles humans log on U.S. roadways each year.
“There's always going to be some uncertainty,” Kusano said. “But I think we are starting to see trends and as we drive more, we'll be able to draw more certain conclusions from the data.”
Watch our entire investigative series
- Part 1: Driverless cars seek San Francisco expansion despite worries tech is unsafe
- Part 2: CPUC votes to expand driverless car operations in San Francisco
- Part 3: San Francisco city attorney files motion to pump the brakes on driverless cars
- Part 4: Google's Waymo says insurance data shows its driverless cars are safer than humans
- Part 5: Hit-and-run driver strikes pedestrian, tossing her into path of Cruise car in San Francisco
- Part 6: Driverless trucks and robot deliveries promise fewer traffic jams than robotaxis
- Part 7: Cruise says its robotaxis can now better detect emergency vehicles
- Part 8: California DMV orders Cruise's driverless cars off the road
- Part 9: Driverless cars immune from traffic tickets in California under current laws
- Part 10: GM's Cruise lays off nearly 25% of its workforce
- Part 11: Waymo's driverless cars surpass 7 million miles, but are they safer than human drivers?
- Part 12: Cruise probe blames poor internet, bad leadership, and "flawed" decisions for company's woes
- Part 13: Driverless Cruise car accused of almost hitting 7 yr old after similar close call involving kids
- Part 14: Cruise offers to pay $112,500 in fines to settle claims driverless car company misled regulators
- Part 15: Uber Eats now uses Waymo Self-Driving cars to offer driverless deliveries
- Part 16: Bills aimed at closing traffic ticket loophole for driverless cars get initial green light
- Part 17: School crossing guards say they've had to dodge driverless cars to avoid being hit
- Part 18: Cruise ordered to pay $112,500 in penalties for withholding info from regulators
- Part 19: Waymo waitlist over in SF, all can hail driverless cars
- Part 20: SF Mayor vows to hold driverless car companies accountable after NBC Bay Area report
- Part 21: San Francisco govt. officials meet with Waymo to discuss safety concerns near schools
- Part 22: California DMV gears up to allow driverless trucking despite calls to restrict high-tech big rigs
- Part 23: Cruise to abandon robotaxi business after tumultuous year
- Part 24: Waymo's robotaxis surpass 25 million miles, but are they safer than humans?
- Part 25: Waymo robotaxi rear-ended in fatal multi-car collision in San Francisco
- Part 26: Multi-car wreck slams into Waymo, marks first time a driverless car is involved in deadly collision
- Part 27: Waymo's driverless cars reach Silicon Valley, but when can you hail a ride to SFO airport?
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