Concretely, they are basing this analysis on 3 Waymos being involved in incidents involving a serious injury or fatality nationwide, versus 16 for NYC for hire ones (presumably in NYC or its immediate environs). The three incidents they're referring to involving a Waymo, for reference:
>The three incidents they're referring to involving a Waymo, for reference
Article: "cause “way mo” fatal crashes" and "Waymo’s autonomous cars cause crashes that result in serious injuries"
In that case the phrasing in the OP is an outright lie. All of the examples provided don't suggest waymo was at fault. The first involved a driver hitting 6 cars in total (one of which is a waymo), and was charged. The second involved a motorcycle rear-ending a waymo. The last was a police chase that ended with the suspect crashing into a waymo.
That depends on what your hypothesis is. If it is that Waymo cars are safer than for-hire (which I guess it's what Waymo claims), then you need enough data to reject the null hypothesis that they are equally safe. Right now there doesn't seem to be enough data to do this, so you can't conclude they are safer. They could be equally safe or more dangerous.
But how do you conclude then that they are less safe? They are neither proven to be more, less, or equally safe. So any statement of "more injuries" is as unfounded as "less injuries" or "just as many injuries".
That seems like the same statement, unless we apply stochastic class level subtlety.
Anyone have the source for the three Waymo serious injuries or deaths? I feel like I would have heard about these on HN. Only thing I've heard of is one feline fatality and a school-aged pedestrian who was bumped, but appeared not to be injured.
Concretely, they are basing this analysis on 3 Waymos being involved in incidents involving a serious injury or fatality nationwide, versus 16 for NYC for hire ones (presumably in NYC or its immediate environs). The three incidents they're referring to involving a Waymo, for reference:
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/san-francisco-fata...
https://www.azfamily.com/2025/09/14/1-person-killed-multi-ca...
https://abc7news.com/post/police-chase-san-francisco-waymo-p...
>The three incidents they're referring to involving a Waymo, for reference
Article: "cause “way mo” fatal crashes" and "Waymo’s autonomous cars cause crashes that result in serious injuries"
In that case the phrasing in the OP is an outright lie. All of the examples provided don't suggest waymo was at fault. The first involved a driver hitting 6 cars in total (one of which is a waymo), and was charged. The second involved a motorcycle rear-ending a waymo. The last was a police chase that ended with the suspect crashing into a waymo.
"have a significantly higher rate of crashes with a serious injury or fatality than the existing New York City for-hire fleet"
Ok
"Waymo's fleet has not yet driven enough miles to support that they are safer than for hire vehicle drivers."
If there's not enough data to show they're "safer" than there also isn't enough data to show they are "less safe".
That depends on what your hypothesis is. If it is that Waymo cars are safer than for-hire (which I guess it's what Waymo claims), then you need enough data to reject the null hypothesis that they are equally safe. Right now there doesn't seem to be enough data to do this, so you can't conclude they are safer. They could be equally safe or more dangerous.
But how do you conclude then that they are less safe? They are neither proven to be more, less, or equally safe. So any statement of "more injuries" is as unfounded as "less injuries" or "just as many injuries".
That seems like the same statement, unless we apply stochastic class level subtlety.
I thought it was the reverse. Waymo wants to be compared to all drivers, this critic says they should be compared to taxi drivers.
Anyone have the source for the three Waymo serious injuries or deaths? I feel like I would have heard about these on HN. Only thing I've heard of is one feline fatality and a school-aged pedestrian who was bumped, but appeared not to be injured.
Upthread - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49009120
Waymo cars are generally "involved": https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradtempleton/2025/09/14/waymo-...
I can only find two fatality crashes in NHTSA data, and Waymo vehicles were merely "involved" in both of them.
Presumably somewhere in the links below, although I doubt the accuracy of the claims.
https://www.openplans.org/how-for-hire-autonomous-vehicles-i...
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e71380706dc865d40a6f...
Are they arguing that NYC taxi drivers are safer then average drivers nationwide?