Poll: Denverites aren't ready to let Waymo take the wheel
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A Waymo travels down a Denver street. Photo: Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via Getty Images
Waymo is getting ready to play chauffeur without a driver behind the wheel. But a new poll suggests it'll need to earn trust before many Denverites climb in.
Why it matters: Winning over hesitant riders remains a major hurdle as Waymo rapidly expands into new cities — even as research suggests its robotaxis crash significantly less than human drivers.
By the numbers: 58% of Denver voters who haven't ridden in an autonomous taxi say they're unlikely to, compared with 32% who say they likely will, per a new Colorado Polling Institute survey.
- Another 10% say they've already ridden in one.
- The bipartisan poll of 400 likely Denver voters was conducted Aug. 11–15.
State of play: Waymo is still working out some kinks on Denver's unpredictable, construction-clogged streets.
- Earlier this month, a Waymo got stuck for roughly an hour navigating Colfax construction, making U-turns before eventually stopping in a travel lane.
- The industry calls such unexpected situations "edge cases," and they're cropping up more as Waymo expands nationwide, the New York Times reports.
The latest: Waymo was involved in a three-vehicle collision Thursday on Eighth Avenue near Denver Health.
- Waymo tells us its vehicle stopped to yield to a pedestrian before a third vehicle rear-ended the car behind it, pushing it into the robotaxi.
- Denver police told CBS Colorado it has no record of any other Waymo crashes in the city.
The other side: Research bolsters Waymo's safety pitch.
- A recent independent study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study found Waymos had 68% fewer police-reportable crashes per mile and 85% fewer single-vehicle crashes than human drivers across four cities.
- Waymo's peer-reviewed research, based on 220 million driverless miles, found 94% fewer serious-injury crashes and 93% fewer pedestrian-injury crashes.
What's next: Waymo plans to open its roughly 50-square-mile Denver service area to the public by year's end with dozens of vehicles — though it's staying tight-lipped about when — before expanding to the airport and beyond.
- Fares will use dynamic pricing and be comparable to other ride-hailing services, a Waymo spokesperson told Axios Denver.
- A waitlist is open in Waymo's app for Denverites who want to be among the first to ride.
Go deeper: What it's like to ride a Waymo in Denver