Check out Sean O'Kane latest data-driven story on test driver injuries. The important item to note here (and one that Sean also made) is that there is certainly more injuries occurring at other companies as well, but they are not being reported for a number of reasons. His story covers why. Check it out!
New investigation from me: Waymo and Zoox test drivers were injured dozens of times across 2024/2025 as a result of harsh braking -- often for no apparent reason -- or erratic movement by the autonomous vehicles, a review of OSHA data shows. 2026 data won't be available until next year, so put a pin in that for now, though I was able to speak to five Zoox contractors who told me the harsh braking (known internally as "brake jabs") were still happening regularly this summer and that workers were still getting injured. I'll leave the rest of the details in my story on TechCrunch because I hope you'll read it, but a few notes. This figure is likely an undercount of total injuries for a few reasons. These injury reports only get made public at locations with more than 100 employees, meaning smaller ones that haven't scaled yet aren't covered. These reports are also only public because of the NAICS code Zoox and Transdev (Waymo's test driver vendor) use w/ OSHA. If other AV companies (or maybe even other locations!) classify themselves as, say, R&D and not taxi/limo, there's not as much disclosure. Also, Zoox issued a recall last year related to harsh braking that resolved a federal investigation. Four of the injuries in the OSHA data came after that, though Zoox told me the recall addressed an extremely narrow braking behavior and said the later incidents — and any resulting injuries — are unrelated to the software fix. Thank you to the contractors who spoke to me for this story, and if you have something to share about this issue, or anything else in the world of robotaxis, get ahold of me on Signal: okane.01 https://lnkd.in/etbD7_VH
I do question if this is responsible reporting? may be considered misleading and damaging to public perception, and giving city and transport planners unnecessary cause for pause, delaying the benefits to society from responsible deployments. Maybe look at the wider motor industry and their safety record of failing to adopt road safety technology and failure to retrofit vehicles. 120 people died yesterday on US roads! This technology is improving with every mile driven; it is a constantly evolving, maturing technology, I don't see the point of reporting something that happened so long ago in the development cycle? There have been so many updates to the technology since this happened!