Posted on 07/27/2026 2:04:21 PM PDT by thegagline
Since Waymo arrived on the public stage as Google’s self-titled autonomous-driving project almost 20 years ago, the promise that self-driving cars would dramatically curtail crashes has remained just that. A handful of companies operate autonomous ride-hailing services in some cities (San Francisco is downright lousy with autonomous cars), but high-profile mishaps show how elusive real progress is. Yet Waymo may be heading in the right direction, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
The nonprofit organization backed by the insurance industry and known for very thorough crash tests recently took a look at Waymo’s safety record. In a study published this week, researchers found that Waymo vehicles are involved in fewer crashes than human drivers per vehicle mile traveled (VMT). That’s based on an analysis of crash rates in the cities where Waymo currently operates—San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Austin—using available data. And the limitations of those data are the real takeaway.
Waymo vehicles traveled about 50 million miles autonomously during the period studied, compared to about 222 billion miles for human drivers in the same locations, over the same timespan. The overall rate of crashes for the Waymo vehicles was 68% lower per VMT than human drivers, and that mostly held up on a city-by-city basis. The crash rate for Waymo self-driving cars was 76% lower in Phoenix, 35% lower in San Francisco, and 71% lower in Los Angeles. The Waymo fleet had 4% higher crashes in Austin than human drivers, but the sample size was relatively small. And Waymo cars were involved in 85% fewer single-vehicle crashes and 81% fewer crashes resulting in injuries per VMT than human drivers overall. [read the full article regarding the statistics]
(Excerpt) Read more at thedrive.com ...
but the get lost in a roundabout ,LOL
“but the get lost in a roundabout ,LOL”
How many?
I defended several cases where there were human caused accidents at the same roundabout very close to my home in Las Vegas. The (infamous) Village Center Circle that abutted TPC Summerlin golf course.
Well that’s comforting...
“Lower”: but how about fatal crashes?
OT: With gas prices today, how many of us are renting Prius?
I would bet that they crash Waymo than that!
Boom! Good one!
The human element is more deadly-accept it. Since you don’t have to pay the driver it should be cheaper and mechanics-their work shifts will soon start at midnight.
Honestly it sounds like science fiction. So you actually wait for and board a driverless car?
People tend to forget that self-driving cars don’t need to be perfect. They just need to be better than the average human driver.
In 20 years fully autonomous cars will be the norm, and we will laugh that we ever doubted them. Traffic deaths will fall by several thousand lives every year. In 100 years we won’t need to own cars. People will just call a car to run errands, and it’ll end up costing much less than owning a car. People will still have cars, of course, but it’ll just be for fun just like people who own horses today.
Yes. It is just like waiting for a uber or the bus or a livery cab.. except the Waymo is more punctual.
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