New Report Finds Dozens of Injuries to Waymo and Zoox Safety Drivers as Companies Rush to Scale Nationwide
HICAGO, IL — August 27, 2026 — Waymo’s robotaxis are already testing on Chicago streets. A full public launch is coming soon. The question Illinois lawmakers need to answer now, before that happens: are we willing to let Chicagoans get hurt first and figure out the rules later?
As autonomous vehicle companies like Waymo and Zoox sell their robotaxis as safer than human drivers, a new report tells a different story. LegalRideshare LLC, the first U.S. law firm dedicated to rideshare and robotaxi injuries, is calling on Illinois lawmakers to put comprehensive safety regulations, mandatory testing standards, and injury reporting requirements in place before these vehicles expand any further onto the state’s streets.
The investigation found that Waymo and Zoox test and safety drivers sustained more than two dozen documented injuries in 2024 and 2025 alone: sprains, whiplash, and other harm from sudden hard braking and erratic vehicle behavior. Some were sidelined for months. This isn’t a handful of flukes. The data, pulled from filings the companies submitted to OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application, shows injuries climbing as the companies scaled their fleets and pushed into new cities, and current workers say the underlying braking problems haven’t gone away.
“These are the companies’ own employees getting hurt inside vehicles the company controls completely,” said Bryant M. Greening, attorney and co-founder of LegalRideshare. “If trained safety drivers who know these systems intimately are getting injured by unpredictable braking and steering, we have to ask what happens when these same vehicles are sharing the road with pedestrians, cyclists, and everyday drivers who have no warning and no ability to intervene.”
The Gap Between Marketing and Reality
AV companies have spent years promoting robotaxis as a transformative safety improvement over human-driven vehicles. But the injury data tells a more complicated story. These are vehicles that behave unpredictably, brake without clear cause, and in some cases have required recalls to address known defects, defects that, according to workers, may not be fully resolved.
Critically, the injuries that have come to light are almost certainly an undercount. Federal disclosure rules only require larger companies operating in specific transit classifications to report this data publicly. That means many injuries to workers, passengers, and the public likely go unrecorded entirely. The underlying OSHA injury data can be viewed at https://www.osha.gov/itadata
What LegalRideshare Is Calling For
Before autonomous vehicles are permitted to operate at scale on Illinois roads, LegalRideshare urges state lawmakers and regulators to establish:
- Mandatory Pre-Deployment Safety Testing. Independent, third-party verification of AV safety performance under real-world conditions before companies can operate commercially in Illinois, rather than relying solely on company-reported data.
- Comprehensive Injury and Near-Miss Reporting Laws. Required public disclosure of all AV-related injuries and near-miss incidents, regardless of company size or industry classification, so regulators and the public have a full and accurate picture of AV safety performance.
- Clear Insurance Standards. Minimum insurance and financial responsibility requirements specific to AV operators, ensuring injured parties, whether pedestrians, passengers, other drivers, or AV company workers, have a clear and adequate path to compensation.
- Ongoing Safety Oversight. Continued monitoring and audit authority for state regulators, not just a one-time approval process, so that safety issues discovered after deployment can be addressed before they cause further harm.
“Illinois has an opportunity to get this right before these vehicles are widespread on our streets,” Greening said. “Other states have allowed robotaxis to scale first and ask questions later. We’re urging our lawmakers not to make that same mistake.”
About LegalRideshare
LegalRideshare LLC, based in Chicago, is the first law firm in the United States dedicated exclusively to rideshare accident, injury, and insurance claims. The firm represents individuals injured in rideshare and, increasingly, autonomous vehicle incidents, and advocates for stronger safety standards across the rideshare and AV industries.
For more information, contact Bryant Greening at 312–670–9000 or bryant@legalrideshare.com.