Waymo's driverless cars crash less often than people (iihs.org)

"safety" is usually the first point out of the mouth of a self-driving advocate. If safety = preservation of life, I wonder how truly "safe" full Waymo supremacy would be when there are millions of Americans who drive for a living [1], in a country where working age adults need a full-time job to get basic healthcare.

Through that lens, I honestly don't know if Waymo's future would lead to preservation of life. I actually think it might increase physical harm to Americans, only that harm is laundered out of our roadways and into our failing healthcare system.

This is an important aspect of any tech that threatens whole sectors of employment.. "safety" is always thrown into question when you cut & consolidate economic lifelines without a societal safety net. If it happens to truckers it can happen to you, too.

[1] https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/06/america-keeps... This article lists 3.5 MILLION truckers, not even counting rideshare drivers and other CDL holders.

Unless those people are also driving taxis maybe.

Waymo Robotaxis Record Higher Serious Injury and Fatal Crash Rate Than NYC's For-Hire Fleet (https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/articles/waymo-robotaxis-...)

It may also be worth noting that waymo doesn't report all crashes to the DMV and they went to court to keep crash data secret (https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/22/waymo-to-keep-robotaxi-saf...)

> Per vehicle mile traveled (VMT),

does scale matter at all though?

do crashes stay constant per miles driven

They are not without their faults. But it's hard to deny that self driving cars enable a much safer space for us to live.

It would be great to see an open framework for the cars to become aware of each other, self driving or not.

Do they have more accidents in any sorts of scenarios where humans are less likely to?

[dead]

How often do driverless cars crash into each other? Seems like a better proxy for the future, i.e. if there were no human drivers would the crash rate be zero?