Data on self-driving robotaxis like Waymo — and soon Tesla — keeps pointing the same direction: they are safer than a human behind the wheel. A new study shows Phoenix is where that gap is widest.
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IT Asset Management crunched federal data on self-driving vehicle collisions across the 5 metros with available data. Phoenix recorded the lowest collision rate of any of them: 117 crashes, or 3.43 per million miles driven. San Francisco posted the highest rate, followed by Atlanta, Austin, and Los Angeles — every one of them above 5 crashes per million miles driven.
In Phoenix, Waymo is the only robotaxi operator. Its service area spans 360 square miles, running from Interstate 17 east to Mesa Gateway and from the 101 south to Chandler.
The federal government tracks every self-driving collision, from fender-benders to fatalities.
Most of the time, the other driver hits the robotaxi. In one of every four crashes, the robotaxi is rear-ended. In one of every five, it is sideswiped. But the robotaxi is not always blameless — in one of every 10 crashes, it hit something stationary.
In more than half of all reported collisions across the country, the robotaxi was either stopped or parked at the time of the crash.
For an apples-to-apples comparison, injury crashes offer the clearest picture. During the study period in Phoenix, human drivers were involved in 1.24 injury crashes per million miles. Self-driving cars logged just 0.47 — that is 62% fewer.
For riders in Phoenix who are concerned about crashes, the numbers so far favor the robotaxi.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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