Waymo has published a large-scale analysis based on over 350 million fully autonomous kilometers driven in real urban conditions, and the data categorically shows that the company's robo-taxis are involved in 95% fewer accidents that resulted in serious injuries or deaths, compared to the results of the average human driver.
The study covers heavy traffic in busy American megacities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin and Atlanta. The statistics also show that the autonomous system has achieved 82% fewer accidents with injuries of any nature, as well as a drastic reduction in accidents involving vulnerable road users. Specifically, the clear decrease in collisions with pedestrians reaches 93%, with cyclists it is 86%, and with motorcyclists - 82 percent.
Although each individual incident involving an autonomous vehicle often attracts massive media attention, experts note that the real scale of human error on the road remains incomparably higher. The videos published by Waymo demonstrate critical situations in which the software instantly recognizes suddenly crossing pedestrians or cyclists crossing a red light, preventing serious accidents where a typical human reaction would be late.