With over ten million miles driven by Waymo cars in the Los Angeles area and over 127 million miles in total; there’s growing concern for their safety and whether or not they’ll replace Uber. Waymo cars have been fully self driving for over five years, having started in 2009 with human drivers under the parent company of Google, Alphabet Inc. This has given them plenty of time to perfect the technology before releasing it onto public roads.

The self-driving cars are known for their robotaxi capabilities—but is having an A.I. behind the wheel really safe? Official data from the Waymo website says that, compared to a human driver, the robotaxi is 90% less likely to cause serious injury.

However, this data does not mean that the cars are completely crash free. While crashes are rare, they still happen. On Jan. 23, a Waymo crashed into a child running onto the street from behind an SUV, right outside Santa Monica Elementary School. Waymo claims the car slowed down to 6 mph before the impact. In the same circumstances, the company argues that a human driver wouldn’t have reacted as fast, causing more damage in the end.

Since Waymos are taking over the taxi space, that leaves concerns for Uber and similar ride-sharing services. Although Uber is slightly cheaper per mile as of 2026, it still comes with the risk of ill-intentioned drivers.

Waymos are starting to become a key figure in public transportation, with people already preferring them over other taxi services due to their privacy and clearer cabins. With their ever-increasing safety, decreasing cost, and increasing accessibility, Waymos will likely overtake Uber’s space in public transportation.