HOWDY！
Meg is a 9th year resident of Austin, Texas, USA and a local market researcher.
In 2025, Austin is entering the first year of autonomous vehicles (AVs), with Google-owned Waymo partnering with Uber to launch its self-driving taxi service in March, and Tesla pioneering Robotaxi's self-driving ride service nationwide in June. Local startup Avride, which made its debut with self-driving food delivery robots in partnership with Uber Eats, also began testing self-driving vehicles in July this year, and Amazon-capital Zoox is also driving around the city.
Among them, it should be noted that the data shows the actual situation of "autonomous vehicle accidents (collisions) reported in 2025". Organizing the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) report by local media KXAN, AV driving in Austin is in a very interesting phase, both in terms of risk and transparency.
1 Major companies and number of accident reports
A total of 68 crashes were reported to NHTSA as of November 2025.
Waymo: Operates the most driverless autonomous taxis in Austin, reporting 58 crashes in 2025. Based on our reporting obligations to NHTSA, Waymo publishes incidents in a relatively polite manner. Many reported incidents involve other vehicles rear-end collisions, inverted crashes, or obstacles, such as a chain or chair in a parking lot. In the KXAN article, there is an analysis that "many accidents are not caused by errors on the part of the autonomous vehicle, but by other vehicles and fixtures."
Avride: Reports of two accidents, one involving a rear-end collision with another vehicle in March and the other involving a reverse-end collision and escape in June.
Tesla（Robotaxi）: 8 incidents reported. For more information, all incident descriptions are blacked out and kept confidential.
2. Trends and Specific Examples of Waymo Reports
Downtown Waymo Self-Driving Self-Driving Taxi
As mentioned above, Waymo operates the most self-driving taxis. Here are some of the 58 reports.
- In one accident, a rear SUV collided with a car in a left turn lane at an intersection.
- Another report found that Waymo vehiclesFront wheel disengaged (wheel separation)There was a serious mechanical problem, and the passenger suffered minor injuries.
- Contact with obstacles, such as being rubbed against the bottom of a chain in a parking lot or touching a chair that had been placed on a path.
Some users report being stuck in a car while stopping, or having a door open and not being able to get out. A rider sued for more than 5 minutes of restraint on TikTok. Waymo explains, “The rider pressed the stop button and it worked.”
3 Although it has not led to a serious accident, it is limited to reporting
When we look at Austin's crash data on self-driving taxis in 2025, Waymo crashes are the most frequent, but many are reported to be “caused by other vehicles or fixtures.” Accidents that have caused serious human damage have not been publicized, and many accidents fall into the category of property damage.
On the other hand, data has limitations. Reports to NHTSA are submitted by each company itself, and the level of detail and transparency varies from company to company. In particular, Tesla has kept many of its incidents private, making it difficult to fully understand what happened from the outside.
Robotaxi, Tesla's autonomous taxi booking app
Autonomous vehicles Waymo, Tesla, Avride, and Zoox drive downtown in Austin in 2025. Currently, only Waymo operates unmanned autonomous taxis. Tesla's self-driving taxi, Robotaxi, is accompanied by a human supervisor. Avride plans to launch its self-driving taxi service this year in Dallas, Texas.
With the spread of self-driving taxis, what users gain is "choice". Late-night robo-taxis allow you to go home safely and quietly, and when you have a lot of luggage or sightseeing, human taxis allow you to have conversations and expect flexible responses. Customer:The era of optimal mobility for each sceneis coming.
Austin's highways. As of 2025, self-driving vehicles will only drive on general roads
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