Waymo — Nearly 1,000 Avoided Injuries

This one is not about home energy upgrades, so there's nothing here that affects your house or heating bills. Still, here's what happened: Waymo, the self-driving taxi company, released new safety numbers for its robotaxis. The company says its cars have now driven more than 270 million fully autonomous miles across five cities — Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco — through the end of June 2026.

Waymo reports that compared with human drivers, its cars were involved in 82% fewer crashes that caused injuries, and 95% fewer crashes involving serious injuries. That works out to 841 avoided injury crashes, up from 544 reported back in December. The company also says its cars cut injury crashes involving pedestrians by 93%, cyclists by 86%, and motorcyclists by 82%.

This is company-reported data, not an independent study, and some readers have raised questions about how the comparisons are made and what problems (like traffic blockages or citations) aren't part of the count. But if the trend holds, it points to self-driving cars becoming a bigger part of daily transportation in more cities over time.

For homeowners, none of this touches insulation, heat pumps, or rebate programs. It's simply a look at where robotaxi technology stands right now, unrelated to any home energy decisions you might be weighing.