Robotaxi companies want to revolutionize transportation, but first they must fix a well-publicized crash problem to build trust among wary consumers.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation this month into traffic incidents involving Google’s robotaxi subsidiary Waymo and Amazon’s Zoox.
The agency said it started the Waymo investigation after it received 22 reports that involved the company’s robotaxis. NHTSA opened its investigation into Zoox after receiving two reports of the company’s autonomous vehicles getting rear-ended by motorcycles after breaking suddenly.
“At Waymo we currently serve over 50,000 weekly trips for our riders in some of the most challenging and complex environments. We are proud of our performance and safety record over tens of millions of autonomous miles driven, as well as our demonstrated commitment to safety transparency,” a Waymo spokesperson said of the investigation.
The probes come on the heels of a string of crashes over the past few months. Waymo taxis have been recorded hitting cyclists, blocking traffic and first responders, and driving on the wrong side of the road.
The collisions have damaged the reputation of autonomous vehicles. More than 90% of consumers say they are concerned about self-driving or autonomous autos, with most citing safety as their main worry in recent polls.
The recent investigations have put a damper on what had been seen as progress. Data recorded by NHTSA shows that robotaxi incidents in the first three months of 2024 were cut in half from a year ago, with 69 crashes involving autonomous vehicles compared to 143 in the first three months of 2023.
Under NHTSA’s General Standing Order, which went into effect in 2021, technology required on all autonomous vehicles must report crashes within 30 seconds.
Still, critics remain skeptical of the claim that robotaxis are safer than human drivers.
“We don’t know that it’s safer and it may not be,” autonomous vehicle safety expert Philip Koopman said. “These companies are telling the public and regulators that it’s proven, that it’s safer than people and the fact is we don’t know yet. So they’re making misleading statements in an effort to get loose regulation and loose oversight.”
While safety advocates agree that NHTSA’s General Standing Order is a positive step, some say it doesn’t go far enough. Safety watchdogs at Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety say critical information about collisions with robotaxis is redacted from NHTSA reports.
“We are unable to get a true sense of what is happening on the road. We respect the need for protecting confidential business information. However, we have no idea what rubric NHTSA is using to make these determinations,” Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety President Cathy Chase said.
In NHTSA crash reports, information such as street names, the number of individuals involved and the severity of the crash can be redacted by the companies.
Still, Waymo maintains that its taxis are far safer than human drivers. According to Waymo’s data, its taxis are nearly seven times less likely to be involved in a crash that results in an injury than a human driver. Its safety reports show that its robotaxis’ crash rate is 0.41 crashes per one million miles driven.
“Let me try to distill it down to one number,” said Waymo’s director of product management, David Margines. “When you take our performance, being better than a human, for each of the miles we drive and then you compare that to the human benchmark and you multiply it out, we estimate that we have reduced more than 25 injury-causing collisions.”
The industry also says it knows it needs to win public trust and wants to improve its technology before it expands.
“We have a job to do in public engagement to make sure people understand what the technology is, what it’s not, how it can be safely integrated into communities, and this is something that will take years to unfold. And we are in no rush to be putting this in places that don’t make sense from a safety perspective,” Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association CEO Jeff Farrah said.
Waymo says its automated taxis are taking road trips across the U.S. constantly to acclimate its technology to environments beyond the three cities where it operates: Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco. Waymo says it works with local governments and authorities during the trips, offering training sessions to help spread awareness and calm fears.
Robotaxi companies don’t yet have detailed road maps to expand to the East Coast, but those cities are already preparing. In March, New York Mayor Eric Adams announced a permitting system for robotaxi companies wanting to operate in the city. The District of Columbia’s Department of Transportation recently created an Autonomous Vehicles Testing Program to help regulate the introduction of autonomous vehicles in the nation’s capital.
“When regulated effectively, autonomous vehicles present an innovative opportunity to improve safety, equity, sustainability, and workforce development opportunities for District residents,” a spokesperson for the D.C. Deputy Mayor of Operations and Infrastructure said in a statement. “The recently established Autonomous Vehicle Testing Program administered by the District Department of Transportation is using a data-driven approach to help ensure that autonomous vehicle operators conform to the city’s roadways and prioritize the safety of all roadway users.”
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.