Waymo’s driverless cars have been involved in 440 reported crashes across Los Angeles County, even as the company’s reported collision rate plunged 41% — a drop largely driven by a federal rule change that let it stop reporting certain minor wrecks.
The Google-owned robotaxi service recorded 9.4 crashes per million miles driven between October 2024 and June 2025. In the following year, that figure fell to 5.5, according to data published by Waymo and analyzed by The Basin.
But the decline came as federal regulators changed which fender-benders autonomous vehicle companies must report, making the figures harder to compare.
Since June 16, 2025, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has no longer required companies to report certain crashes in which another vehicle strikes a driverless car, provided no vehicle is towed, nobody is taken to a hospital, no airbag deploys and the damage is not expected to exceed $1,000.
The agency said the change was designed to filter out minor collisions, including cases in which a driverless vehicle was stationary when another car hit it.
The impact on numbers was immediate.
Waymo’s minor crash rate in Los Angeles fell from 6.5 per million miles before the change to 2.1 afterward. Meanwhile, crashes requiring reports within days rose from 2.8 to 3.4 per million miles.
Most of the decline involved crashes in which another vehicle struck a Waymo. Those incidents fell from 5.2 per million miles to 1.8.
The company’s records show that its vehicles were stopped or parked in 269 of the 440 reported county crashes. Other drivers rear-ended stationary Waymos 123 times and sideswiped them 71 times.
Since the rule change, Waymo was the only vehicle towed and nobody was hurt in 109 of the 172 incidents reported within days, compared with 20 of 41 before the change.
Waymo classified 62 incidents as head-on crashes, but its descriptions indicate that its vehicle was stationary in 60 of those cases.
The incidents are concentrated in Mid-City, Hollywood, West LA and Downtown. Santa Monica Boulevard recorded 27 crashes on the street or at its corners, followed by Olympic Boulevard with 25 and Venice Boulevard with 20.
Police reports cover only a small share of minor incidents. In the city of Los Angeles, just 23 of 304 Waymo crashes without reported injuries had a police report, while Santa Monica police documented none of 22 such incidents.
Of 58 crashes in which someone reported an injury, Waymo’s descriptions say a passenger reported or alleged an injury in 39. None involved a suspected serious injury or death.
Meanwhile, Tesla and Amazon are developing their own autonomous vehicle operations in Los Angeles.
Tesla’s bronze-gold Cybercab prototypes have been spotted on local streets as the company conducts testing and mapping for its autonomous driving ambitions.
Amazon’s Zoox is also testing in the city, using modified Toyota Highlander SUVs equipped with roof-mounted sensors, cameras and lidar rather than its distinctive purpose-built robotaxis.
Neither company currently offers public driverless rides in Los Angeles.
