Waymo has updated the safety statistics for its self-driving cars. By June 2026, the company's vehicles had driven 271.3 million miles (about 437 million km) fully autonomously – without a human behind the wheel. Over this mileage, the cars were involved in injury accidents 82% less often than regular drivers over a comparable distance. The calculation takes into account accidents regardless of who was at fault. According to the company, the difference corresponds to 841 injury accidents.

The result is even more significant for serious incidents: the number of accidents with serious injuries or more severe consequences was 95% lower than the human benchmark. For pedestrians, the reduction was 93%, for cyclists – 86%, for motorcyclists – 82%.

The statistics are based on trips in five US metropolitan areas: Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, and Atlanta. Waymo compares its own performance with the estimated performance of regular drivers in the same areas.

An important nuance: this is not a universal indicator of self-driving car safety. Waymo's methodology is based on the company's own data and specific operating conditions. However, the published results can be verified using open datasets, and the methodology relies on previously published peer-reviewed studies.

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