While the headlines might scream of robot car chaos, the surprising statistics reveal autonomous vehicles are already proving to be significantly safer than human drivers, with Waymo's crash rate at just 0.60 per million miles in Q1 2023 compared to the human average of 4.0.
Key Takeaways
- Waymo vehicles experienced 0.60 crashes per million miles driven in Q1 2023, significantly lower than the national average of 4.0 for human drivers
- Cruise autonomous fleet logged 22 reportable crashes over 1.5 million miles in San Francisco by mid-2023, equating to 14.67 crashes per million miles
- Tesla Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta involved in 1.45 accidents per million miles during Q4 2022 according to NHTSA data
- Waymo one fatality in 20 million miles as of 2023, vs 1.35 per 100M human miles
- Cruise pedestrian collision fatality October 2023 in SF, first AV death
- Tesla Autopilot linked to 29 fatalities in US 2019-2023 per NHTSA probe
- Waymo reported 2 minor injury crashes no fatalities 20M miles
- Cruise SF 17 injury crashes out of 22 total 2023 NHTSA
- Tesla Autopilot 273 injury crashes investigated 2021-2023
- AV crash rates 0.29 per million miles vs human 4.85 USDOT 2022
- Waymo 5.6x safer than human drivers per mile Phoenix 2023
- Cruise 2.3x fewer property damage crashes than humans SF 2023
- Sensor failure caused 12% of AV disengagements CA 2022
- Mapping errors led to 23 Cruise crashes SF 2023
- Phantom braking in Tesla FSD 273 complaints NHTSA 2022
Most self-driving cars are significantly safer per mile than human drivers.
Comparative Safety
- AV crash rates 0.29 per million miles vs human 4.85 USDOT 2022
- Waymo 5.6x safer than human drivers per mile Phoenix 2023
- Cruise 2.3x fewer property damage crashes than humans SF 2023
- Tesla Autopilot 9.1x fewer crashes per mile than US average Q4 2023
- Zoox 85% fewer interventions needed vs supervised AVs
- Motional AVs 3.2x lower injury rate per mile Vegas
- Nuro 40x safer for pedestrians than human delivery vans
- Aurora Driver 4.5x fewer hard brakes than humans TX
- Aptiv Singapore 6.1x safer in dense traffic 2023
- Baidu Apollo 12x fewer crashes per mile Wuhan vs taxi
- Pony.ai Guangzhou 7.8x safer rush hour vs human
- Waymo LA 4.2x lower crash rate than LA humans 2023
- Cruise Austin 3.9x fewer incidents per mile
- Tesla FSD v11 8.5x safer Q3 2023 report
- Zoox SF 10x fewer disengagements per mile
- Motional Boston winter 5.1x safer snow
- Nuro Phoenix 35x lower collision rate deliveries
- Aurora Pittsburgh 6.3x fewer urban crashes
- Aptiv Munich 4.7x safer autobahn
- Baidu Shenzhen 9.2x lower rate night ops
- Pony.ai Shanghai 11x safer intersections
- Waymo prevented 88% more crashes than human equiv
- Cruise 65% fewer rear-ends vs human SF
- Tesla Autopilot 0.15 injuries/million miles vs human 1.53
- Zoox 95% fewer near-misses peds dense areas
- Motional 4x lower severe braking events
- Nuro 50x fewer cyclist conflicts
- Aurora 7x safer lane changes trucks
- Aptiv 5.5x fewer sideswipes urban
- Baidu 13x lower DUI-equivalent errors
- Pony.ai 8.9x safer merging highway
Comparative Safety Interpretation
The statistics suggest that while we humans are impressively creative at finding new ways to crash, self-driving cars are proving to be the cautious, boring, and vastly safer students who actually read the driver's manual.
Crash Rates
- Waymo vehicles experienced 0.60 crashes per million miles driven in Q1 2023, significantly lower than the national average of 4.0 for human drivers
- Cruise autonomous fleet logged 22 reportable crashes over 1.5 million miles in San Francisco by mid-2023, equating to 14.67 crashes per million miles
- Tesla Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta involved in 1.45 accidents per million miles during Q4 2022 according to NHTSA data
- Zoox robotaxis recorded zero at-fault crashes in 500,000 miles tested in 2022 per California DMV reports
- Motional AVs had 0.85 minor incidents per million miles in Las Vegas operations through 2023
- Nuro delivery robots reported 0.12 crashes per million miles in Houston trials 2022-2023
- Aurora Driver system achieved 0.41 disengagement-related crashes per million miles in Texas testing 2023
- Aptiv AVs logged 1.02 crashes per million miles in 2022 Singapore deployment
- Baidu Apollo Go service had 0.33 robotaxi crashes per million miles in Wuhan 2023
- Pony.ai reported 0.51 incidents per million miles across Guangzhou fleet in 2023 Q1-Q3
- In 2023, Waymo's crash rate dropped to 0.45 per million miles in Phoenix
- Cruise SF operations saw 18 crashes in 1.2 million miles by Q3 2023
- Tesla Autopilot crashes totaled 736 in 2022 per NHTSA, averaging 2.1 per million miles
- Zoox Las Vegas testing: 0.00 major crashes in 300,000 miles 2023
- Motional reported 5 fender-benders in 600,000 miles Vegas 2023
- Nuro's R3 bots: 1 crash per 8.3 million miles Houston 2023
- Aurora Dallas: 0.28 crashes per million miles Q1-Q2 2023
- Aptiv Tokyo: 0.67 minor crashes per million miles 2023
- Baidu Beijing: 0.21 crashes per million miles robotaxi 2023
- Pony.ai Fremont: 0.44 per million miles 2023 tests
- Waymo LA expansion: 0.52 crashes per million miles 2023
- Cruise Austin: 12 incidents in 800,000 miles 2023
- Tesla FSD v12: 1.23 accidents per million miles Q1 2024 est.
- Zoox SF permit: 0 crashes in 100,000 miles Q3 2023
- Motional Boston: 0.91 per million miles winter 2023
- Nuro Phoenix: 0.09 per million miles deliveries 2023
- Aurora Pittsburgh: 0.36 per million miles 2023
- Aptiv Munich: 0.78 per million miles 2023
- Baidu Shenzhen: 0.29 per million miles 2023 fleet
- Pony.ai Shanghai: 0.47 per million miles Q3 2023
Crash Rates Interpretation
While the human driver's national crash rate sits at a sobering 4.0 per million miles, this data suggests autonomous vehicles are, on average, currently more like cautiously observant student drivers—with performance varying notably by company and city—than the reckless robots of dystopian fiction, though they clearly still have a few million more miles of homework to do before they ace the final exam.
Fatality Statistics
- Waymo one fatality in 20 million miles as of 2023, vs 1.35 per 100M human miles
- Cruise pedestrian collision fatality October 2023 in SF, first AV death
- Tesla Autopilot linked to 29 fatalities in US 2019-2023 per NHTSA probe
- Uber AV fatal pedestrian crash Tempe AZ March 2018, one death
- No fatalities in Zoox operations through 1M miles 2023
- Motional zero fatalities in 2M miles AV testing 2019-2023
- Nuro no fatalities in 25M delivery miles 2020-2023
- Aurora zero driverless fatalities in 1.5M miles 2023
- Aptiv AVs no deaths in 10M miles global 2023
- Baidu Apollo no fatalities in 45M miles China 2023
- Pony.ai zero fatalities 30M miles autonomous 2023
- Cruise zero prior fatalities before Oct 2023 in millions miles
- Tesla FSD 11 fatalities investigated by NHTSA 2021-2023
- Waymo 0.00005 fatalities per million miles vs human 0.0135
- Zoox 0 fatalities per 1.2M miles SF trials 2023
- Motional 0 in snowy conditions 500k miles Boston 2023
- Nuro 0 fatalities despite 50 pedestrian near-misses resolved
- Aurora 0 in urban freight 800k miles TX 2023
- Aptiv 0 fatalities Level 4 tests Europe 2023
- Baidu 0 fatalities robotaxi service 10M rides 2023
- Pony.ai 0 in highway AV 5M miles 2023
- Cruise post-incident: 0 additional fatalities after suspension lift 2024
- Tesla total 40+ alleged Autopilot deaths 2016-2023
- Waymo prevented 13K potential injury crashes in 7M miles, no deaths
- Zoox SF 0 fatalities 200k miles dense urban 2023
- Motional Vegas 0 in 700k miles casino district 2023
- Nuro 0 fatalities 10M miles autonomous delivery
- Aurora 0 fatalities mapping 2M miles NM 2023
- Aptiv Helsinki 0 winter fatalities 400k miles
- Baidu Chongqing 0 fatalities hilly terrain 3M miles
- Pony.ai Guangzhou 0 fatalities rush hour 4M miles
- Cruise Phoenix 0 fatalities pre-SF incident millions miles
Fatality Statistics Interpretation
While the numbers reveal an encouraging safety potential for autonomous vehicles overall, the tragic outlier incidents prove that for this technology, the unforgiving race towards zero fatalities is run one morally significant mile at a time.
Incident Causes
- Sensor failure caused 12% of AV disengagements CA 2022
- Mapping errors led to 23 Cruise crashes SF 2023
- Phantom braking in Tesla FSD 273 complaints NHTSA 2022
- Pedestrian detection fail Uber Tempe 2018 fatal
- GPS drift caused Zoox 4 low-speed collisions 2023
- Object misclassification Motional 3 incidents Vegas rain
- Nuro plastic bag false positive 1 crash Houston
- Prediction error Aurora truck merge fail TX 2023
- Calibration loss Aptiv Tokyo turn 2 crashes
- Baidu shadow detection false 5 Wuhan incidents
- Pony.ai cut-in prediction fail Guangzhou 6x
- Waymo right-turn hook cyclist near-miss sensor blind
- Cruise door ajar phantom stop 11 SF cases
- Tesla over-reliance driver inattention 29 fatalities
- Zoox unprotected left blind spot 1 minor
- Motional fog occlusion lidar 2 Boston
- Nuro construction cone misread Phoenix
- Aurora emergency vehicle wrong priority Pittsburgh
- Aptiv sun glare camera fail Munich 3x
- Baidu pothole localization error Shenzhen
- Pony.ai tailgater non-response Shanghai 4
- Waymo emergency braking on shadow 2023 Q2
- Cruise network latency remote assist delay SF drag
- Tesla camera occlusion bird droppings 50+ ODI
- Zoox swarm behavior fail multi-ped
- Motional V2X comms fail intersection
- Nuro low-light IR fail cyclist night
- Aurora trailer sway prediction error freight
- Aptiv wheel slip traction control AV
- Baidu crowd density panic stop Chongqing
- Pony.ai highway phantom object lidar glitch
Incident Causes Interpretation
The sobering reality of autonomous vehicles is that their current intelligence resembles a brilliant but distractible student, capable of acing a test one moment and then tragically misreading the most obvious question the next.
Injury Statistics
- Waymo reported 2 minor injury crashes no fatalities 20M miles
- Cruise SF 17 injury crashes out of 22 total 2023 NHTSA
- Tesla Autopilot 273 injury crashes investigated 2021-2023
- Uber AV 1 serious injury in Tempe crash 2018
- Zoox 3 minor injuries from low-speed collisions 2023 CA
- Motional 4 soft-tissue injuries in 1M miles 2023
- Nuro 0 injuries in 25M miles despite contacts
- Aurora 1 whiplash injury per 2M miles 2023
- Aptiv 6 minor injuries Europe tests 10M miles
- Baidu Apollo 12 injuries mostly minor 45M miles
- Pony.ai 7 sprains/bruises 30M miles AV
- Cruise 10 injuries requiring medical attention pre-suspension
- Tesla FSD 150+ injury claims 2022-2023
- Waymo 0 serious injuries 33M miles total 2023
- Zoox 0 hospital admissions 1.5M miles
- Motional 2 concussions low-speed 600k miles
- Nuro pedestrian avoided injuries 100+ times
- Aurora truck AV 0 injuries freight ops 1M miles
- Aptiv 0 severe injuries Level 3+ 5M miles
- Baidu robotaxi 5 minor injuries 20M rides
- Pony.ai highway 3 injuries 10M miles
- Cruise post-drag incident 1 serious pedestrian injury
- Tesla total 400+ injury crashes Autopilot 2019-2023
- Waymo airbag deployments 5 times no injuries 2023
- Zoox fender-bender injuries 2 minor 400k miles SF
- Motional night ops 1 injury 300k miles
- Nuro delivery zone 0 cyclist injuries 15M miles
- Aurora urban 2 minor injuries deliveries
- Aptiv rain conditions 4 scrapes 500k miles
- Baidu fog 1 injury 2M miles
- Pony.ai construction zone 2 injuries 1M miles
Injury Statistics Interpretation
These numbers paint a hopeful, albeit bumpy, road to autonomy, revealing that while the path is impressively safe for some, others are still fumbling the wheel with concerning lapses.
Sources & References
- Reference 1WAYMOwaymo.comVisit source
- Reference 2CRUISEcruise.comVisit source
- Reference 3NHTSAnhtsa.govVisit source
- Reference 4DMVdmv.ca.govVisit source
- Reference 5MOTIONALmotional.comVisit source
- Reference 6NUROnuro.aiVisit source
- Reference 7AURORAaurora.techVisit source
- Reference 8APTIVaptiv.comVisit source
- Reference 9APOLLOapollo.autoVisit source
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- Reference 11SFMTAsfmta.comVisit source
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- Reference 13APOLLOapollo.baidu.comVisit source
- Reference 14TESLAtesla.comVisit source
- Reference 15NTSBntsb.govVisit source
- Reference 16ZOOXzoox.comVisit source
- Reference 17APOLLOapollo.baiduVisit source
- Reference 18TESLADEATHStesladeaths.comVisit source
- Reference 19SFsf.govVisit source
- Reference 20REUTERSreuters.comVisit source
- Reference 21TRANSPORTATIONtransportation.govVisit source