Waymo Lead Over Tesla Jumps

Endorsements from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)/Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) are among the most highly prized in the car industry. The Top Safety Pick+ and Top Safety Pick are used by hundreds of thousands of people when they make car purchases. These ratings have been part of the car industry since 2006.

Now, they have used their research prowess to look at the safety of a single self-driving car brand–Google’s Waymo. The Waymo system’s crash rate was compared to that of human-driven cars. A ranking of Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) Robotaxi was nowhere to be found. That means any potential safety issue with the Tesla product, a major hurdle to self-driving vehicle adoption, has been left behind. IIHS did not give a reason.

The research paper about Waymo safety was titled, “Rise of the machines: crash experiences of highly automated vehicles and human drivers.” It gathered federal data on the operations of SAE Level 4 (L4). This stands for highly automated vehicles. Vehicles with these systems have to report accidents to the Federal Highway Administration. Waymo also provided data. Information on human-based accidents came from states based on “police-reported” incidents. “The sample was restricted to crashes that a person would typically report to the police,” the research showed.

The key conclusion from the test was, “Per vehicle mile traveled (VMT), Waymo’s driverless vehicles deployed in San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Austin were involved in 68% fewer crashes than human drivers.”

As states and municipalities look at approval of self-driving vehicles for broad use, safety is at the top of the list. Self-driving accidents are often widely reported by the press. That, in turn, can trigger broad concerns about their safety. This may well affect how broader populations view their anxiety about handing over all driving features to an AI-based system.

Each self-driving car parent company makes extensive claims about how they operate compared to human driving. Tesla Executive Officer Ashok Elluswamy recently said, “Robotaxi growth, so far, has been literally exponential while keeping an impeccable safety record.”

There is a heated race for self-driving acceptance by government, because the financial viability of these programs is at stake. Another measure of acceptance is the number of cities where vehicles are being tested. Recent data show Waymo is operating in 11 American cities while Tesla is in seven.
Both Tesla and Waymo will take whatever edge they can for adoption as each races to become the industry leader. The new IIHS test of Waymo’s safety has helped it pull ahead in the race.

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