by Michael Levanduski
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Waymo recently released its safety statistics report with updated information going through June of 2025. The results show that the company continues to do an exceptionally good job at keeping their passengers safe.
Since it started driving on public streets, the fleet of Waymo vehicles has traveled 96 million miles, which on its own is very impressive. The statistics show that the autonomous vehicles are about 91% less likely to get into an accident where someone is seriously injured than a human driven car.
From mid-February to Mid-August of 2025, there were 45 crashes reported. According to an explanation from Understanding AI, however, not all of those crashes were Waymo’s fault. They explain:
“…large majority of these crashes were clearly not Waymo’s fault, including 24 crashes where the Waymo wasn’t moving at all and another seven where the Waymo was rear-ended by another vehicle.”
For example, three of the reported crashes occurred when Waymo was dropping a passenger off and the passenger opened their door without looking. A bicyclist or scooter rider then ran into the door. In theory, that could be prevented by Waymo keeping the doors locked until it was safe from opening, but one can hardly blame Waymo’s self-driving technology for these types of things.
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Another reported accident was caused by the Waymo vehicle having a wheel fall off. Obviously that is a problem, but it is not a problem associated with self-driving. That type of mechanical failure can happen on any car.
Waymo has been on the roads for the longest period of time with their self-driving vehicles, and throughout that time, it has always put safety first. Other self-driving cars, including Tesla’s new Robotaxi vehicles, seem to prioritize rapid deployment over safety at every level.
That is not to say that the Tesla service is unsafe, far from it. Simply that even with a much smaller (for now) fleet of vehicles offering self-driving taxi services, the Robotaxis are getting in more accidents. Of course, that number will almost certainly drop as the systems are improved.
Also, while official numbers are not available, even with the higher risk of accidents compared to Waymo, the Tesla vehicles appear to still be much safer than human driven cars.
Another thing to keep in mind with Waymo is that their taxi service does not operate on the highway in most cases. They do have employees who can ride in a Waymo on the highway, and some select customers, but this happens far less than city driving.
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The higher speeds on the highway system open up new risks of more severe accidents, which is likely why the company is taking it slow and making sure that all the issues are worked out before exposing its customers to the added risk.
At the end of the day, the safety data from Waymo is just one more piece of evidence showing that the self-driving industry is advancing rapidly and will (hopefully) soon overtake the number of human driven vehicles on the road.
Thought that was fascinating? Here’s another story you might like: Why You’ll Never See A Great White Shark In An Aquarium
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Categories: SCI/TECH
Tags: · ai, driving safety, robotaxi, robots, safety, science, self driving, single topic, tesla, top, waymo
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