A fatal accident involving an autonomous, self-driving Waymo, a motorcycle, and a third vehicle, occurred in Tempe, Arizona early Sunday morning, September 14, around 1:30 am. AZ Family reports that Tempe police are searching for a hit-and-run driver who ran over and killed a motorcyclist who rear-ended the Waymo, which was at the time empty, near the downtown Tempe campus of Arizona State University. AZ Family reports:
A Waymo spokesperson says the Waymo was making a right turn and yielding to a pedestrian when the motorcycle rider rear ended the self-driving car. Less than a second later, a separate vehicle struck the motorcyclist and continued driving, fleeing the scene.
AZ Family quotes a Waymo spokesperson, who stated, "Safety is our highest priority at Waymo. We are deeply saddened by this event and we are fully cooperating with law enforcement and regulators."
According to this deep-dive on the company in Time, as of June, 2025, Waymo currently employs 2500 people and runs over 1500 cars in its fleet. Across the cities where Waymo operates, including San Francisco, Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta, the driverless cars complete more than 250,000 paid rides and travel over 2 million miles per week. Time reports on the company's safety record, stating that "scores of data suggest that they are already much safer than human drivers." Time continues:
While Waymo, at 9 years old, is still a very young company, data so far shows that its cars are, in fact, safer than the average driver. A peer-reviewed May paper found that over 56.7 million miles, Waymos were involved in 85% fewer crashes with serious injuries than the average human, and 96% fewer injury-involving intersection crashes, a leading cause of severe accidents. In March, the tech journalist Timothy Lee analyzed the 38 crashes that Waymo reported over the previous eight months, and found that at least 34 of them were mostly or entirely the fault of others involved.
However, Waymo safety data aren't always clear and straightforward. Back in May, 2025, AZ Family reported the results of its investigation of driverless Waymos on Arizona roads, which sought to understand how often Waymos are at fault in vehicle crashes, and, when they are, how often they are cited or ticketed. AZ Family begins the report by stating that the answer "isn't easy to find," as data gathered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which indicated that Waymo vehicles were involved in at least 202 crashes (both minor and major) in Arizona between 2021 and 2024, include records that are "heavily redacted" and that "do not indicate who was at fault." AZ Family provides further details:
Arizona's Family Investigates spent six months collecting and reviewing police reports on Waymo crashes in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Chandler, Mesa and Tempe. Of the 71 police-documented crashes involving Waymos, officers determined the self-driving car was not at fault 87% of the time. In 13% of cases, however, police blamed the Waymo vehicle . . .
Waymo launched the world's first self-driving ride-hailing service in Arizona in late 2020. Since then, the company's research shows Waymo vehicles are involved in 81% fewer injury crashes and 88% fewer property damage claims than human drivers, according to a study published jointly with researchers at Swiss Reinsurance Company. "Collisions will and can occur, and we are absolutely prepared to respond to them," said Camille Dredge, Waymo's senior director of ride-hailing operations.
However, Waymo's research and the analysis by Arizona's Family Investigates did not include cases where a confused Waymo caused other vehicles to crash, and the Waymo car wasn't touched. We found at least one example of this in October near 54th Street and Chandler Road in Chandler.
The rest of the results of the investigation — including the fact that, despite many Waymos behaving in ways that police officers believe warrant a citation, many are never cited — are interesting, and I encourage you to read the full article here.
I personally have witnessed multiple incidents of Waymo cars acting really stupid and dangerous. Just a week ago I saw a Waymo get stuck at a flashing light on a major street here in Tempe. It was sitting at the light, confused and unmoving, for the entire ten minutes I stopped (safely, on a side street!) to watch (and who knows how much longer it sat there after I finally drove off), and was causing other cars to have to maneuver around it, stop behind it, and otherwise behave in ways that seemed dangerous. I'm frankly surprised nobody got into a crash. And the dumb Waymo just sat there, not having any clue what to do.
For folks in cities crawling with Waymos, please be careful! Stay safe!
Previously:
• Waymo self-driving car hit bicyclist
• Waymo robotaxis drive better than humans
• Waymo refuses to let a man catch a flight
• San Francisco sues the California Public Utilities Commission over its decision to allow the expansion of Waymo autonomous vehicles
• Waymo, facing opposition against expansion in San Francisco, announces Austin as a new market
• Waymo cars won't stop honking at night and neighbors are losing sleep
