New research analyzes safety of Waymo robotaxis

Waymo shared new research with Swiss Re, one of the world’s largest insurance providers, analyzing liability claims related to collisions from 25.3 million fully autonomous miles driven by the Waymo Driver. The study expands on Waymo’s previous research by using auto liability claims aggregate statistics as a proxy for at-fault collisions.

The study compared Waymo’s liability claims to human driver baselines, which are based on Swiss Re’s data from over 500,000 claims and over 200 billion miles of exposure. It found the Waymo Driver demonstrated better safety performance when compared to human-driven vehicles. It showed an 88% reduction in property damage claims and a 92% reduction in bodily injury claims.

Across 25.3 million miles, the Waymo Driver was involved in just nine property damage claims and two bodily injury claims. Both bodily injury claims are still open and described in the paper. For the same distance, human drivers would be expected to have 78 property damage and 26 bodily injury claims.

Waymo said the latest study demonstrates that as it has scaled operations across Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin, the Waymo Driver has significantly outperformed both the overall driving population and the latest generation of human-driven vehicles equipped with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

“Our research shows how insurance data can help evaluate autonomous vehicle safety and provide the framework needed to support widespread adoption,” said Ali Shahkarami, Global Head P&C Solutions at Swiss Re. “By analyzing a larger dataset across multiple cities, we deepened our understanding of how this technology performs in real-world conditions. These promising results help underscore the potential of this technology to create a safer future for our roads.”

When analyzing this data, it’s important to consider a few factors. First, Waymo’s robotaxis are currently only available in urban areas. Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in 2022 highlights that rural environments are particularly dangerous for drivers, accounting for 17,283 (41%) of the 42,514 motor vehicle traffic fatalities, compared to 25,023 (59%) in urban areas.

Secondly, the cities where Waymo operates are characterized by dry, sunny, and warm weather conditions—ideal scenarios for self-driving technology. Waymo has yet to deploy its robotaxis in regions with snowy weather, which could pose significant challenges for sensors and overall vehicle performance.

Finally, there’s far fewer autonomous vehicles on the road than human-driven vehicles, so there’s less data from which to draw conclusions.

Waymo Driver outperforms human drivers with ADAS

Waymo noted its safety advantages hold true even when compared to newer vehicles (2018-2021 models) equipped with modern safety technology. This includes ADAS features such as automated emergency braking, forward collision warning, lane-keeping assistance, and blind spot warning.

When compared to this group, the Waymo Driver showed an 86% reduction in property damage claims and 90% reduction in bodily injury claims.

This analysis complements Waymo’s safety impact data. The company’s data indicates that over 25 million fully autonomous miles, the Waymo Driver had fewer serious collisions than human drivers, independent of who was at fault. This Swiss Re study provides evidence that Waymo had no responsibility in the vast majority of the collisions its vehicles were involved in, Waymo said. 

“Auto insurance claims data, traditionally used to assess human driver liability and risk, is a powerful tool in evaluating the safety performance of autonomous vehicles,” said Mauricio Peña, chief safety officer at Waymo. “This is a truly groundbreaking study that not only validates the Waymo Driver’s strong safety record, but also provides a scalable framework for ongoing assessment of the impact autonomous vehicles make on road safety.”

Waymo, the self-driving unit of Alphabet, has been expanding its robotaxi operations this year. It currently operates services in  San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, and limited services in Austin. It has plans to start services in Miami and Tokyo in 2025. Waymo said it already provides over 150,000 trips per week across its deployment sites.

Waymo continues to lead the way

Transparency has become increasingly important for autonomous vehicle providers as they win over public trust. The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) suspended Cruise’s permits in the state, alleging the company withheld footage of it. Cruise, the self-driving unit of GM, was Waymo’s top competitor for years. When it was most successful, it was running services in San Francisco, Austin, Houston, and Phoenix, and had plans to expand to more than a dozen cities in 2024. 

After its permits were suspended, Cruise struggled to win back public trust. Despite it resuming manual driving in Houston and Dallas and announcing that supervised driving was underway in Phoenix and Dallas, it wasn’t able to grab another foothold in the industry. Last week, GM announced it will no longer fund Cruise’s robotaxi deployment work. Instead, it plans to use Cruise’s technology to develop fully autonomous vehicles and assisted driving systems. 

While Waymo is the clear leader in the field, it isn’t the only company attempting to deploy robotaxis in the U.S. Other competitors include Nuro, which recently expanded its driverless capabilities using zero-occupant vehicles, and Zoox, which recently grew its operations in California and Nevada.