Overview
- The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety published the analysis this week showing Waymo driverless robotaxis logged 68% fewer police‑reportable crashes per mile than human drivers across Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Austin.
- IIHS limited its comparison to crashes that would normally be reported to police and used about 50 million Waymo driverless miles against roughly 222 billion human‑driven miles in the same cities to calculate crash rates.
- The study also found big city variation with Waymo crash rates 76% lower in Phoenix, 71% lower in Los Angeles, 35% lower in San Francisco and 4% higher in Austin, an outlier the report says reflects a small sample size.
- Researchers flagged major data gaps: only about 22% of automation‑engaged crashes were police‑reportable, companies are not required to disclose vehicle miles traveled, and current reporting rules create asymmetries that complicate comparisons.
- Waymo welcomed the findings and called for clearer rules, while safety experts and some lawmakers urged standardized mileage and incident reporting and said cities should consider local limits on fleet operations because questions about congestion, empty‑mile driving and liability remain.