Waymo is still good at avoiding serious death and destruction after 56.7 million miles

Waymo released a new study today that it says shows its fully driverless vehicles continuing to outperform human drivers after 56.7 million miles. The peer-reviewed study, which is slated for publication in Traffic Injury Prevention Journal, analyzes Waymo’s performance in 11 different crash scenarios compared to human drivers. In addition, it cites early evidence that the company’s vehicles are adept at preventing the most serious types of injuries during a vehicle crash. The study is the latest from Waymo that aims to bolster its safety case as it slowly introduces its robotaxis to new cities. Waymo says its fully driverless vehicles have traveled 56.7 million miles across its four major markets — Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin — as of January 2025. The company compared the data from those miles to human driving benchmarks to determine how much safer its vehicles are in certain scenarios, like rear-end crashes, secondary crashes, and lateral crashes. [Image: Waymo compared its vehicles’ performance to human drivers in 10 different scenarios, as well as suspected serious injuries. https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/05/Image2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all] After analyzing the data, the company says its vehicles demonstrated a 92 percent drop in pedestrian injuries, an 82 percent decline in cyclist injuries, and an 82 percent decrease in motorcyclist injuries. Waymo also logged 96 percent fewer vehicle-to-vehicle crashes at intersections compared to human drivers, which the company notes is the leading cause of road injury for drivers in the US. [Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAuna_qzf6k] According to the study, a total of 48 injuries, 18 airbag deployments, and 2 “suspected serious injuries” were recorded in crashes involving Waymo vehicles across all four cities through January 2025. Serious injury cases are still rare, leading the company to conclude that “more miles are needed to draw statistical conclusions” about whether its driverless vehicles are better at avoiding them than human drivers. Still, Waymo says the data proves that its self-driving cars are better at avoiding crashes and injuries than human drivers. “It’s exciting to see the real positive impact that Waymo is making on the streets of America as we continue to expand,” said Mauricio Peña, Waymo’s chief safety officer, in a statement. “This research reinforces the growing evidence that the Waymo Driver is playing a crucial role in reducing serious crashes and protecting all road users.” Waymo continues to be one of the few autonomous vehicle operators willing to publish its own data to help build the case that driverless cars can be as safe or safer than humans. The company has released several reports in which it analyzes insurance data to show how its vehicles crash less often and damage less property than human-driven vehicles. It published a paper that described how its AVs performed when compared to a virtual hyper-attentive human driver. And it created its own online safety hub to collect all these reports, with the overarching message that its autonomous vehicles are not to be feared. To be sure, self-driving cars — including Waymo’s — are still facing a public acceptance problem. They stumble into construction zones, block ambulances, run red lights, and even injure the occasional bicyclist or pedestrian. Numerous public opinion polls have shown declining support for autonomous vehicles over the years and a rise in outright hostility toward the technology. Waymo thinks its approach to transparency can help turn the tide in its favor.