Every day, our team at Thomas Creech Law Offices sees the devastating toll car accidents take on families across Greenville and the Upstate. Severe injuries, wrongful deaths, spinal trauma, and life-altering emotional distress are not abstract statistics—they’re the reality our clients wake up to after a crash.
For decades, human error has been the leading cause of serious and fatal collisions. Now, a new question is emerging: could fully autonomous vehicles prevent many of these tragedies?
Waymo, one of the nation’s most advanced autonomous vehicle companies, recently released the largest-ever dataset on driverless safety. Combined with independent medical analysis and ongoing federal investigations, the conversation around autonomous vehicle safety is becoming impossible to ignore.
Here’s what accident victims, families, and all South Carolina drivers should know.
Waymo’s Safety Results: A Public Health Shift, Not Just a Tech Story
A neurosurgeon writing in The New York Times recently reviewed Waymo’s crash data and described what he found as “a public health breakthrough.” After analyzing nearly 100 million driverless miles in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin, the numbers were striking:
- 91% fewer serious-injury-or-worse crashes
- 80% fewer crashes causing any injury
- 96% fewer intersection crashes
- 92% fewer pedestrian-injury crashes
- 83% fewer crashes involving cyclists or motorcyclists
When compared side-by-side with human drivers on the same roads, the difference was overwhelming.
As the surgeon explained, in medicine you stop a clinical trial early when a treatment performs this much better than the alternative. The benefit becomes too good to ignore.
Even more telling: in the rare fatal or serious crashes involving a Waymo vehicle, a human-driven vehicle caused every one of them.
For communities like Greenville, where busy intersections such as Woodruff Road, Laurens Road, and Wade Hampton see frequent injury crashes, these reductions are hard to overlook.
Independent Reporting Supports the Findings
Waymo’s claims aren’t taken at face value. Independent reviews from outlets like Ars Technica and Understanding AI found the safety performance consistent with the company’s published data. And the federal government has acknowledged the extraordinary mileage Waymo has accumulated—over 100 million miles as of last summer, with more than 2 million additional miles every week.
That volume of data matters. Human drivers don’t report most crashes, and many partial-automation systems (e.g., Tesla’s supervised “Full Self-Driving”) don’t yet show consistent real-world crash reductions, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Waymo, however, publishes miles driven, the exact locations, and crash outcomes—allowing direct, apples-to-apples comparisons.
But Driverless Vehicles Aren’t Perfect—And Recent Issues Prove It
With any new technology, transparency is critical. NPR recently reported that Waymo plans to issue a voluntary software recall after several of its autonomous taxis in Texas and Georgia failed to remain stopped for school buses with activated stop signs.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened a formal investigation and issued detailed information requests. Fortunately, no injuries occurred, and Waymo reports that updated software should resolve the issue.
This recall illustrates two important truths:
- Driverless vehicles can still make mistakes, and every error must be taken seriously.
- True safety requires accountability, regulatory oversight, and transparent data—all of which autonomous vehicle companies must be held to.
At Thomas Creech Law Offices, we stress this point often: technology does not eliminate responsibility. Whether the driver is a person or a computer, victims deserve answers and full accountability when something goes wrong.
What Does This Mean for Drivers and Accident Victims in South Carolina
Here in Greenville, driverless cars aren’t yet operating on our roads. But the national conversation impacts future transportation policy and your safety.
Self-driving technology could eventually reduce the kinds of crash scenarios we frequently handle:
- Intersection collisions, often causing severe leg, chest, or head injuries
- Pedestrian and cyclist impacts, which frequently result in fractures or traumatic brain injuries
- High-speed distracted driving accidents, a leading cause of wrongful death cases
- Rear-end collisions, which often lead to whiplash, spinal injuries, or chronic pain
Still, as the NPR report reminds us, technology alone is not a guarantee of safety. A malfunctioning autonomous car can injure someone just as a negligent human driver can. And when it does, the legal questions become complex:
- Who is liable—the manufacturer? The software developer? A remote operator?
- Was the vehicle properly supervised or maintained?
- Did the company fail to correct a known safety issue?
- Did the autonomous system make a decision outside industry norms or legal requirements?
These are the questions our team is trained to investigate.
Why Transparency and Accountability Matter
The New York Times article highlights a key point: the U.S. lacks consistent rules requiring companies to disclose crash rates, miles driven, or real-world performance. Only the most transparent companies allow meaningful safety analysis.
We agree with experts calling for:
- Verified crash reporting
- Independent audits comparing autonomous and human crash data
- Policies that protect road users, not corporate timelines
You should not have to “trust” technology with your safety—companies must prove its safety, and victims must have clear legal pathways when injuries occur.
If You’re Injured by Any Vehicle—Driverless or Not—Thomas Creech Law Offices Can Help
Whether your injuries were caused by a human driver, a commercial truck, a rideshare vehicle, or (in the future) an autonomous vehicle, your recovery is what matters most.
At Thomas Creech Law Offices, we bring the same principles to every case:
- Thorough investigation
- Expert analysis of medical records and crash mechanics
- Accountability for negligent behavior
- Full pursuit of compensation, including medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and emotional trauma
We have over 25 years of experience helping accident victims navigate complex, emerging issues—including those involving new technologies and unique liability questions.
Contact Thomas Creech Law Offices Today
If you or a loved one has been injured in any type of vehicle collision, you do not have to face recovery or the legal process alone.
Call us today at 864-235-4999 or request a free, confidential consultation online.
We are here to help you understand your rights, protect your claim, and begin healing.
