A new report argues Waymo taxis cause “way mo” fatal crashes and injuries per mile driven than other for-hire vehicles in New York City.
The report published by traffic expert Sam Schwartz’s research program at Hunter College and Open Plans compared the number of major crashes and deaths per mile travelled between the city’s Uber and Lyfts and Waymo vehicles around the country since 2020.
The researchers found that across the country, Waymo’s autonomous cars cause crashes that result in serious injuries or death at a rate 1.5 times that of the city’s for-hire fleet.
“All of the claims made by Waymo, by robotaxi enthusiasts, are thin because they just haven't driven enough,” said Kelly McGuinness, coauthor of the report and director of the Sam Schwartz Transportation Research Program at Roosevelt House at Hunter College.
The data is skewed by the total number of miles traveled by the nearly 120,000 for-hire vehicles in New York City compared to the fewer than 4,000 Waymo robotaxis reportedly on the roads nationwide.
The city’s for hire vehicles were involved in 16 crashes causing death or serious injuries during the time period analyzed. Waymo robotaxis were involved in three nationwide. But the authors concluded Waymo’s rate was more problematic because the robotaxis drove far fewer miles.
Waymo questioned the research team's methodology and criteria for "serious" injuries.
"Any meaningful safety analysis should compare apples-to-apples data, based on best practices. We caution against comparisons that extrapolate Waymo’s safety performance from one place to another," Waymo spokesperson Ethan Teicher said in a statement.
The researchers said the findings call into question Waymo’s claims that its autonomous vehicles cause 94% fewer crashes and injuries than vehicles driven by humans.
The research team argued it is more reasonable to benchmark Waymo’s safety record against professional for-hire drivers, who are 14 times safer than the typical human driver.
When looking at all crashes, Waymo’s safety record improved. Nationally, Waymo vehicles were involved in approximately 67% fewer injury-causing crashes per million miles driven — roughly one-third the rate of the city’s for-hire vehicles. But Schwartz’s team cautioned that Waymo’s “limited miles driven and data constraints” weighed against drawing concrete conclusions.
The report also claimed that Waymos will exacerbate traffic because the robotaxis will be unable to find a place to park when they don’t have a passenger.
"While we aren’t able to say with certainty what the safety benefit of our technology would look like in New York, the data to date makes us hopeful our technology can help make New York City’s roads safer," Teicher said.
Last August the city allowed Waymo to conduct a pilot with eight vehicles on city streets, as long as there was a driver behind the wheel and they didn’t pick up any passengers. There were no reported crashes involving the pilot in the city.
This year, Gov. Kathy Hochul withdrew her support of a bill that would have allowed Waymo to operate outside New York City.
The researchers cautioned lawmakers to slow down before approving any new legislation to allow Waymo to operate in the state.
“When this technology came out people were hailing it as a technological innovation,” McGuinness said. “It seems like a solution right now without a problem, especially in New York City where we have such good public transit.”
