{"id":5005,"date":"2025-09-24T00:51:45","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T00:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/?p=5005"},"modified":"2025-09-24T00:51:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T00:51:45","slug":"waymos-safety-stats-are-so-good-even-the-skeptics-are-running-out-of-arguments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/?p=5005","title":{"rendered":"Waymo\u2019s Safety Stats Are So Good, Even the Skeptics Are Running Out of Arguments"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been about a year since we last covered Alphabet\u2019s driverless car company Waymo. Since then, a\u00a0massive peer-reviewed study<\/a> analyzed Waymo\u2019s performance over 56 million rider-only miles (i.e., where no humans were behind the wheel), and the results are pretty wild:<\/p>\n

85% fewer suspected serious injuries compared to human drivers.<\/p>\n

96% reduction in intersection crashes (where 27% of fatal crashes happen).<\/p>\n

92% fewer pedestrian crashes.<\/p>\n

82% fewer cyclist and motorcycle crashes.<\/p>\n

For context, Waymo went from 10,000 weekly rides in May 2023 to\u00a0250,000 in April 2025<\/a>. That\u2019s ~25x growth in two years. If this rate continues, they could more than likely hit 1M weekly rides by early 2026.<\/p>\n

The competition is on and popping<\/h2>\n

Amazon\u2019s Zoox finally\u00a0launched in Vegas<\/a> with its toaster-on-wheels design\u00a0\u2014\u00a0there is no steering wheel, and the seats face each other. Chinese players like WeRide and Pony AI\u00a0<\/a>are partnering with Singapore\u2019s Grab for 2026 launches of their own.<\/p>\n

And Tesla? Tesla is still very much in game. As far as its fully autonomous robotaxi service, called \u201crobotaxi,\u201d it launched in June out in Austin though\u00a0not without controversy<\/a>\u00a0and will soon launch in Phoenix<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n

Where\u2019s all this going?<\/h2>\n

Anyone (including you) owning and operating your own robo-fleet. Elon Musk made that a big part of his\u00a0launch event for the robotaxi<\/a>, and during Alphabet\u2019s Q1 earnings earlier this year, Google CEO Sundar Pichai hinted at \u201cfuture optionality around personal ownership.<\/a>\u201d Translation: You might eventually be able to buy your own Waymo that earns money while you sleep.<\/p>\n

Why this matters<\/h2>\n

As\u00a0Ethan Mollick says<\/a>, with 40,000 killed and 2.4 million injured in U.S. accidents annually, an 85% reduction in serious injuries should be front-page news. Bigger cities are starting to catch on:\u00a0NYC just approved Waymo testing<\/a>, and Singapore\u2019s\u00a0fast-tracking approvals<\/a>. Waymo also just announced a\u00a0new launch in Nashville<\/a> in partnership with Lyft.<\/p>\n

The policy vacuum is a real issue<\/h2>\n

As Mollick noted, there\u2019s not enough policy response to self-driving cars existing. With safety data this compelling, the question isn\u2019t whether robotaxis will scale, it\u2019s whether regulation and public opinion can keep up with the technology.<\/p>\n

You can learn more by reading our deep dive about Waymo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note:<\/em><\/strong> This content originally ran in the newsletter of our sister publication, The Neuron<\/a>. To read more from The Neuron, <\/em>sign up for its newsletter here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Waymo\u2019s Safety Stats Are So Good, Even the Skeptics Are Running Out of Arguments<\/a> appeared first on eWEEK<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been about a year since we last covered Alphabet\u2019s driverless car company Waymo. Since then, a\u00a0massive peer-reviewed study analyzed Waymo\u2019s performance over 56 million rider-only miles (i.e., where no humans were behind the wheel), and the results are pretty wild: 85% fewer suspected serious injuries compared to human drivers. 96% reduction in intersection crashes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5005"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}