Waymo Report Shows 88% Fewer Serious Crashes Than Human Drivers

• New data show that Waymo’s autonomous vehicles were involved in 88% fewer crashes resulting in serious injury or worse compared to human drivers in the same locations.
• Injury crashes involving vulnerable road users—pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists—were reduced by up to 93% compared to human drivers.

Waymo has released updated safety data showing that its fully autonomous ride-hailing vehicles dramatically outperform human drivers in crash outcomes. Across 71 million rider-only miles driven through March 2025, the Waymo Driver showed steep reductions in serious injuries, airbag deployments, and crashes involving vulnerable road users.

Compared to human benchmarks for surface street driving, the Waymo Driver had 88% fewer crashes resulting in serious injury or worse, 79% fewer involving airbag deployment, and 78% fewer total injury-causing collisions. These results were drawn from operations in Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, with all three cities showing statistically significant safety improvements.

Waymo’s largest safety gains came in scenarios involving vulnerable road users. Compared to human drivers, the company saw 93% fewer injury crashes with pedestrians, 81% fewer with cyclists, and 86% fewer with motorcyclists. Many incidents also involved minimal impact: 45% of all reported crashes caused less than a 1 mph change in speed, a level typically associated with only minor damage and low injury risk.

🌀 Tom’s Take:

As autonomous vehicles are still relatively new to many, publishing data around safety is a savvy step by Waymo to increase transparency and trust with passengers. These results are a good start towards Waymo's "Vision Zero" goal to "eliminate traffic fatalities and severe injuries" through its self-driving vehicles.

Source: Waymo