• First fatal crash involving driverless vehicle: On January 19 in San Francisco, a fully driverless Waymo vehicle stopped for a red light. Another car rear-ended it at high speed, causing a six-car pileup that killed one person, injured five others, and a dog also died. Another major Waymo crash occurred in October in San Francisco with similar circumstances.
• Safety record since July: From July 2024 to February 2025, Waymo reported 38 crashes serious enough to cause an (alleged) injury or airbag deployment. Only one crash was clearly Waymo's fault, and in most cases (34 crashes), it seemed to be mostly or entirely the fault of others, such as other vehicles crashing into stationary Waymos or veering into their right of way. There were two incidents where no crash seemed to happen.
• Comparison with human drivers: Waymo's per-mile crash rate is lower than human drivers. In 44 million miles driven in Phoenix and San Francisco through December, human drivers would have 78 airbag crashes while Waymo had 13. For injury-causing crashes, human drivers would have 190 while Waymo had 36.
• Insurance claims: Insurance claims against Waymo are about 90 percent lower. In 25 million driverless miles by July 2024, there were only two potentially successful claims for bodily injury (both pending and unlikely to be held against Waymo), and nine successful or pending property damage claims compared to an estimated 26 for human drivers.