Waymo autonomous taxis record 68% fewer crashes than human drivers

A study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) examined Waymo’s driverless taxi fleet in four U.S. cities—San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Austin. Over the period 2021‑2024 the autonomous vehicles traveled about 80 million km (roughly 50 million miles) compared with 357 billion km (222 billion miles) driven by human drivers in the same locations. The crash rate for Waymo cars was 68% lower per vehicle‑mile traveled, with injury‑involved crashes down 81% and single‑vehicle crashes down 85%.

City‑by‑city results showed reductions of 76% in Phoenix, 71% in Los Angeles, and 35% in San Francisco, while Austin recorded a 4% higher crash rate, a figure attributed to a small sample size. Waymo’s fleet operates at SAE Level 4, meaning the cars drive autonomously only within mapped, predefined zones. IIHS President David Harkey said, "The results show that, in limited scale, these driverless cars are safer than human drivers."

The findings highlight the potential safety advantages of autonomous ride‑hailing services, though they also note that the comparison is limited by the confined operating environments and the absence of Level 5 full‑range autonomy.