Waymo’s driverless vehicles are operating in more cities, and studies show they could reduce crashes on our roads. The study, a free partnership between Waymo and reinsurance company Swiss Re, showed that Waymo cars generate fewer insurance claims than cars driven by humans.
Swiss Re analyzed claims resulting from crashes over 25.3 million miles driven by Waymo’s self-driving cars. The study also compared Waymo’s liability claims to a baseline of human drivers, based on data from more than 500,000 claims and more than 200 billion miles driven. They found that Waymo Driver “demonstrated superior safety performance compared to human-driven vehicles.”
According to the study, cars driven by Alphabet’s Waymo drivers experienced an 88 percent reduction in property damage claims and a 92 percent reduction in personal injury claims.
Swiss Re has also devised a new metric that compares Waymo Driver only to newer vehicles equipped with advanced safety technologies such as driver assistance, automatic emergency braking and blind spot warning systems, rather than the entire 200 billion miles driven. Waymo remains ahead in this comparison, reducing property damage claims by 86 percent and personal injury claims by 90 percent.
Of course, there are two obvious problems. First, Waymo currently only operates in urban areas, and while cities certainly account for the majority of crashes in the United States, rural areas account for far more crashes in proportion to population. (especially fatal accidents). (Incidentally, the study says that including suburban data in its baseline metrics actually lowers Waymo’s true safety numbers.) Second, Waymo was simply born It’s not that long. It is very difficult to obtain accurate measurements of the system when the actual test period is relatively short.
While the numbers may look good in the Waymo Driver study, they are by no means perfect. Waymo issued its second recall over the summer after one of its robotaxis crashed into a street light pole in the city of Phoenix at 8 mph. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an investigation into Waymo and found 24 incidents involving collisions and traffic violations.
