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If you've taken a Waymo ride in Phoenix or Los Angeles, you might be wondering when New York will finally get its own fleet of driverless taxis. The answer: not anytime soon. But a new report is already raising fresh questions about whether robotaxis would actually make the city's streets safer—or more dangerous.
Released this week by the Sam Schwartz Transportation Research Program at Hunter College and transportation advocacy group Open Plans, the study concludes that autonomous for-hire vehicles could be 1.5 times more likely than New York City's taxi, Uber and Lyft drivers to be involved in crashes resulting in deaths or serious injuries, when measured per million miles traveled.
That's an important finding because safety has long been one of the biggest selling points for autonomous vehicle companies. Waymo, Google's self-driving car company, has even argued that removing human error from the equation can dramatically reduce crashes. But the new report suggests the situation becomes more complicated when you compare robotaxis not with the average driver, but with New York City's professional for-hire drivers, who already have unusually strong safety records.
The researchers analyzed publicly available safety data released by Waymo, along with 2025 crash data from the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission and Department of Transportation. Their conclusion wasn't that Waymo crashes more often overall. In fact, the opposite was true: the report found Waymo vehicles were involved in about 67% fewer injury crashes per million miles than New York's for-hire vehicles.
But the surprise came when researchers isolated only the most severe crashes. By that measure, they found Waymo vehicles were involved in fatal or serious-injury crashes at a higher rate than the professional drivers they would likely replace.
"For-hire vehicle drivers are professionals," Open Plans executive director Sara Lind told am New York. "They drive every day for a living and they are very safe."
Waymo strongly disputes those conclusions.
Company spokesperson Ethan Teicher told the outlet that the report's methodology is "not scientifically sound," arguing that it compares crash data collected under different standards and from very different cities. He also cautioned against assuming Waymo's performance in places like Phoenix or San Francisco would translate directly to New York.
The study also warns that robotaxis could worsen congestion. Researchers point to Waymo's operations in San Francisco, where vehicles often spend significant time driving without passengers—a practice known as "deadheading." In Manhattan, where curb space is already scarce, they argue that empty miles could increase as vehicles circle rather than park.
The findings come as New York's autonomous-vehicle future remains uncertain. Waymo's pilot program—which allowed eight autonomous vehicles to operate in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn with trained safety drivers behind the wheel—expired in March and city officials did not renew it. According to the Department of Transportation, the test vehicles reported no collisions during the pilot. Current state law still requires a human safety driver in any autonomous vehicle operating on public roads, meaning fully driverless taxi service remains illegal in New York.
So should New Yorkers be worried?
Not necessarily. The report projects what could happen if robotaxis eventually become widespread here—it doesn't document crashes involving Waymo's New York testing program. Still, as lawmakers continue debating whether fully autonomous vehicles belong on the city's famously chaotic streets, the study adds another wrinkle to a conversation that's only just getting started.