An independent study finds Waymo's robotaxis are involved in fewer crashes than human drivers, with a significantly lower accidentally rate in Phoenix.

Why it matters: The research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety offers some of the strongest evidence yet that driverless vehicles can outperform human drivers on safety.

Zoom in: IIHS researchers compared crash rates of human-driven cars and Waymo robotaxis in San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Austin, four cities where robotaxis are prevalent.

What they found: Overall, Waymo vehicles were involved in 68% fewer "police-reportable crashes" per mile traveled than human drivers in those cities.

• Waymo had 85% fewer single-vehicle crashes than human drivers.
• Injury crashes were 81% lower on a per-mile basis.

The intrigue: The safety advantage varied by city, ranging from 76% fewer crashes in Phoenix to 35% fewer in San Francisco.

• Austin was the exception, with Waymos seeing a slightly higher crash rate, though researchers said the sample size there was small.

The big picture: The data generally aligns with Waymo's own published research, and with industry-wide messaging about the safety benefits of autonomous vehicles that don't get drunk, drowsy or distracted.

Reality check: The nation's patchwork approach to autonomous vehicle safety data makes it difficult to accurately compare crash rates, IIHS argues, echoing a longstanding complaint from researchers and some members of Congress.

• The U.S. requires companies to report incidents involving automated driving systems, but most companies do not disclose how many miles their vehicles travel.
• Without exposure data, researchers can't calculate meaningful crash rates or compare companies.

Between the lines: Waymo is the only major robotaxi operator that voluntarily releases driverless mileage data, allowing IIHS to estimate its safety performance.

• But researchers had to discard roughly 25% of reported AV crashes because they were duplicates, occurred off public roads or weren't true crashes.

The bottom line: IIHS says Waymo's results are encouraging, but the study doubles as a call for better federal reporting standards.

• Without standardized mileage and crash data across the industry, policymakers will struggle to independently assess whether autonomous vehicles are getting safer as deployments scale.

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Arizona's two Democratic U.S. senators are still fueling talk of possible presidential campaigns in 2028.

The big picture: No Arizonan has ever been elected president.

State of play: Sen. Ruben Gallego told KTAR's "Outspoken with Bruce & Gaydos" on Friday that the big hurdle for him would be trying to balance time with his family, his job and a campaign.

• He noted that he has three children — the youngest just a year old — and said he and his wife are discussing whether to have another.
• Asked whether he's considering a presidential run "very deeply," Gallego responded: "Surface-level deeply"

Sen. Mark Kelly appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, and when host Kristen Welker asked what it would take to get him to a "yes" for 2028, he said he'd have to see what issues the country was facing after the November election, saying it's paramount for Democrats to win the House and Senate.

• "This is a discussion that I'm going to continue to have with my family. But we've got plenty of time," he said.
• Welker pointed out that Kelly's wife, former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, said recently that he should "go for it."

Zoom in: Gallego tied recent Republican attacks against him to his possible presidential run.

• "There's only a couple of Democrats that are thinking of running for president that have won red states. I'm one of them. There's only a couple of Democrats that can speak to working class America, especially Latino men. I'm one of them," he told KTAR.

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