How many crashes involve driverless cars in Austin?
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Known as a growing tech hub, the City of Austin has also become an epicenter for autonomous vehicle technology in recent years with General Motors' Cruise, Volkswagen and Waymo being just a handful of companies who currently have an autonomous vehicle footprint in the Texas capital.
These companies have pointed to Austin's concentrated pedestrian regions downtown and in the West Campus neighborhood, as well as its specific transportation network, as the reasoning behind the appeal. But as the tech's presence grows in Austin, so can the possibility of stalled AVs on local roadways, as is what happened last week when two Cruise vehicles stalled. No injuries or crashes were linked to the two incidents.
As more driverless vehicles test operations in Austin, here's a look at their safety and crash records.
A June 2022 report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found there were 130 crashes involving automated driving systems, or ADS, nationwide between July 1, 2021 and May 15, 2022. During that reporting period, the vast majority of crashes happened in March 2022 and April 2022, with 16 ADS-involved crashes reported in each month.
NHTSA data revealed Waymo accounted for the majority of ADS crashes reported with 62 recorded. Transdev Alternative Services was the manufacturer linked to 34 ADS crashes, with Cruise reporting 23 crashes.
Of all ADS-involved crashes cataloged, 108 of them resulted in no injuries, 12 included minor injuries, three featured moderate injuries and one crash involved serious injuries. In eight of the crashes, the conditions of those who were involved are unknown.
KXAN evaluated NHTSA data collected over a multi-year span on incidents affiliated with AVs, with 11 Austin incidents reported between July 2021 and May 2023. Narrowing down, KXAN analyzed 110 incidents involving Cruise vehicles in NHTSA's dataset, with four of those crashes reported in Austin.
The vast majority of Cruise-involved crashes occurred in San Francisco and resulted in no injuries, per NHTSA data. Cruise has only operated in Austin since late 2022.
Some Cruise crashes occurred while the vehicle was noted as "proceeding straight," while others happened as the vehicle was making a left or right-handed turn or was backing up.
Three crashes resulted from the Cruise vehicle traveling the wrong way, while another three were attributed to the autonomous car entering traffic. There were six crashes resulting from the vehicle stopping in traffic.
KXAN has reached out to Cruise regarding best practices for passengers if one of its robotaxis stalls in traffic, and what bystanders should do if they see a stalled vehicle. We will update this story once a response is received.