As robot taxis are being deployed more rapidly in various locations across the United States, the issue of personal safety during testing has begun to receive more attention. After reviewing data disclosed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the United States, it was found that there were over twenty work-related injuries among testers involving autonomous vehicles between 2024 and 2025, mainly due to sudden braking, abrupt turns, or abnormal movements of the vehicles.
Waymo Reported 16 related work-related injuries within two years
Reports show that Transdev, which is responsible for hiring and managing the Waymo test drivers, reported a total of 16 related incidents at Waymo sites in three cities. Public records indicate that most of these incidents were associated with the autonomous driving system suddenly applying heavy brakes or making sharp turns.
One of the testers reported that while the vehicle was automatically parking, the car suddenly reversed and made a sharp turn with the steering wheel, causing his left hand to get stuck and resulting in an injury to his wrist. He subsequently took more than two months off from work. By 2025, there were 11 similar incidents in these three areas, with the vast majority also related to sudden braking.
Public records also mention that a tester in Phoenix took a 157-day leave of absence after experiencing an abnormal braking event in September 2025 where there were "no obstacles ahead." Another incident in Los Angeles occurred in August 2025, where an employee reported that the vehicle made an emergency stop due to a child entering the path ahead, followed by a 175-day leave of absence.
Zoox claims that multiple injuries are related to sudden hard braking
In the records submitted by Zoox to OSHA, there are at most 8 cases of work-related injuries related to sudden braking. Two current and three former contractors interviewed by TechCrunch stated that test vehicles equipped with autonomous driving systems still experienced sudden braking in July of this year, and some employees have continued to get injured during these tests to this day.
These respondents mentioned that internally, such situations are referred to as “brake jabs”. This can occur multiple times during a single test drive, and sometimes it even happens repeatedly on the same stretch of road. According to them, the system often triggers sudden brakes due to detecting, or misjudging, obstacles on the road surface, and the impact on the body is more pronounced at high speeds.
OSHA Records show that in January 2025, a Zoox test vehicle suddenly came to a halt while driving autonomously in San Francisco, causing an injury to the contractor's shoulder and upper arm, which restricted their work for 16 days. In the same month, another driver suffered a neck injury due to an "accidental stop" of the vehicle, resulting in swelling in their shoulder, and it took them 8 days to return to normal work.
Security pressure increases with the acceleration of commercialization
Waymo has been advancing autonomous driving research and development for over a decade, but the real large-scale expansion occurred in 2025. In May of that year, the company's commercial fleet exceeded 1,500 vehicles, and now it has grown to more than 3,500. Although Waymo has not disclosed the number of test vehicles separately, with the expansion into new cities and the advancement of map collection, it is almost certain that the test mileage has increased.
Zoox is also accelerating its commercialization efforts. The company began charging for its custom robotic taxi service in Las Vegas for the first time this month, offered free rides in San Francisco, and is conducting tests in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Seattle, and Washington D.C.
It is worth noting that among the 8 incidents of injury reported by Zoox in 2025, 4 occurred after the company completed a software recall. That recall was aimed at responding to a year-long investigation by the U.S. federal authorities regarding unexpected braking issues with the vehicles. Zoox stated to TechCrunch that the recall targeted a very specific type of braking behavior, and subsequent incidents and related injuries were not related to that fix.
Neither Waymo nor Zoox has provided a detailed response to specific cases. Waymo stated that the safety of passengers, road users, and the team is always of primary importance. Tests involving human operators are part of their verification process, and the relevant experience will be incorporated into subsequent service improvements.
