Waymo crashes 1/3 as much as a human driver, says IIHS – with some caveats - Electrek

What the report says

Electrek reported that a new Insurance Institute for Highway Safety analysis found Waymo’s autonomous ride-hailing vehicles were involved in substantially fewer police-reportable crashes than typical human drivers in comparable areas. According to the article, IIHS reviewed federal crash-reporting data for robotaxi services from 2021 through 2024 and focused mainly on Waymo because it had the largest usable dataset. The study covered about 50 million autonomous miles and found 1.28 crashes per million miles for Waymo, compared with 4.06 for human drivers — a 68% lower rate.

The findings also indicated that Waymo crashes were generally less severe and often not attributed to the Waymo vehicle, Electrek said. The results held in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles, while Austin showed a slightly higher Waymo crash rate, a result the article linked cautiously to a limited sample because Waymo was still testing there during the study window. Tesla was not part of the IIHS analysis because its Austin robotaxi activity began after the period examined.

Electrek emphasized several caveats. Autonomous-vehicle companies must report crashes, while human drivers may not report minor incidents, requiring researchers to filter out small scrapes and low-level crashes. Waymo also voluntarily reports autonomous miles, but such mileage reporting is not broadly required, limiting comparisons across companies.

The article also noted that Waymo’s operating conditions differ from human driving patterns: highway miles were excluded, many Waymo miles occurred on lower-speed streets, and almost half of its miles had no passenger inside, which can affect injury comparisons. The study adds independent evidence to earlier Waymo-publicized safety claims, but Electrek said larger datasets will be needed before broader conclusions about autonomous-vehicle safety are settled.