Waymo’s crash rate in LA fell 41%… After the feds changed what they had to report

• Waymo reported a 41% drop in crash rates in Los Angeles County from October 2024 to June 2025, with 9.4 crashes per million miles driven. The drop occurred in minor crashes where another vehicle hit Waymo’s cars, but this was not reported under the new rules. The NHTSA changed its reporting rules to exclude minor crashes involving a tow, hospital trips, air bags, or deaths from being reported.

• The new rules allowed companies to avoid reporting minor crashes where the driverless car was stationary and struck by another vehicle. Waymo sent two types of crash reports: those with a tow, hospital trip, or air bag, which had to be reported within days, and minor crashes that went into a monthly report. In Los Angeles, minor crashes fell from 6.5 per million miles before the change to 2.1 after it, while the ones reported within days went from 2.8 to 3.4.

• The drop in minor crashes was already occurring before the rule change, with minor crashes falling from 8.7 per million miles at the end of 2024 to 5.4 in the spring of 2025, and then to 2.1 in the first full quarter under the rule. Most of the fall was in crashes where another vehicle hit the Waymo, which went from 5.2 per million miles to 1.8. The number of crashes with no injury reported also dropped, from 16 to 40, but the number of crashes with a hospital trip or air bag was unchanged.

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