Waymo has released new crash data which claims not only an 82% reduction in crashes, but for the first time says the number of injuries that have been avoided by its robotaxi operation.
We’ve seen various Waymo crash data before, with Waymo claiming crash reductions.
That’s all well and good when the company says it, but we’ve also seen independent data confirming similar (though lower) crash reduction numbers. So it does seem like Waymo has an advantage over human drivers, at least in the limited areas it operates in.
The problem is, crashes are relatively rare, and crashes that cause injury even moreso. So even though Waymo’s millions of miles driven seems like a lot, human drivers drive 3 trillion miles per year in the US. So there’s still quite a gap in the data.
Nevertheless, Waymo has enough miles that it’s ready to start quoting how many injuries it has prevented, and the number is pretty high.
Its newest crash data states that it had operated a total of 271 million driverless miles through June of this year, which is 50 million more miles added in the 3 months since its end-of-March update.
Over those miles, Waymo says there was an 82% reduction in crashes that caused injury, and a 95% reduction in crashes that cause “serious injury or worse.”
It also said that the number were even better for more vulnerable road users. Waymo says that there were 86% fewer cyclist crashes causing injury and 93% fewer pedestrian crashes causing injury.
Waymo also released some interesting video showing avoided crashes. Here are a few of them:
All told, summing up the numbers across its number of miles operated, Waymo says that 841 crashes that would have caused injury were avoided. 175 of those crashes would have involved pedestrians, cyclists or motorcyclists, and 55 of them would have caused serious injuries or worse.
These numbers are important right now, especially as fatal crashes for pedestrians and cyclists reach all time highs due to ballooning vehicle sizes, distracted drivers, and an intentional effort by US Transportation Secretary/former reality TV contestant Sean Duffy to kill everyone who isn’t in a car (yes, really).
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