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Waymo led California autonomous-vehicle testing by safety-driver mileage, while Cruise led driverless testing and recorded more miles between reported disengagements in 2022. Those figures describe different kinds of testing, not a single overall safety winner. The comparison is historical: available figures establish the companies’ lead through 2022, but do not establish a verified company-by-company California leaderboard for 2026.
Who tested more: Waymo or Cruise?
It depends on whether you count miles driven with a safety driver or miles driven without one. California DMV data reported by EE Times in 2023 show Waymo far ahead in safety-driver mileage in 2022, while Cruise accounted for most driverless testing mileage that year.
| Measure | Waymo | Cruise | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safety-driver miles in 2022 | 2.9 million (California DMV data, as reported by EE Times, 2023) | More than 863,000 (California DMV data, as reported by EE Times, 2023) | Waymo drove more than three times Cruise’s reported safety-driver mileage. |
| Driverless miles in 2022 | Nearly 52,000 (California DMV data, as reported by EE Times, 2023) | More than 546,000 (California DMV data, as reported by EE Times, 2023) | Cruise drove about 90% of the state’s 602,000 reported driverless miles. |
| Miles per disengagement in 2022 | 17,060 (California DMV data, as reported by EE Times, 2023) | 95,900 (California DMV data, as reported by EE Times, 2023) | Cruise’s reported testing miles between disengagements were higher under this measure. |
“Safety-driver miles” are miles driven during testing with a human safety driver in the vehicle; “driverless miles” are testing miles without one. They are separate categories, so adding them together or comparing one company’s figure in one category with another company’s figure in the other would obscure what the data measure.
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Waymo had the larger safety-driver testing footprint
Across the 28 companies reporting safety-driver testing in 2022, California recorded 4.58 million such miles. Waymo’s 2.9 million represented more than 63% of that year’s total, while Cruise’s more than 863,000 represented nearly 19%, according to the DMV data reported by EE Times in 2023.
In the longer-running safety-driver category, the two companies together accounted for 81% of 17.2 million cumulative California AV miles through 2022. Waymo’s share was over 58% and Cruise’s nearly 23%. That cumulative lead measures safety-driver testing—not all autonomous operation or every kind of road exposure.
Cruise led the reported driverless testing mileage
California logged 602,000 driverless testing miles in 2022, and Cruise accounted for about 90% of them. Waymo reported nearly 52,000. This is why Cruise can be described as the driverless-mileage leader even though Waymo had substantially more safety-driver miles.
Disengagement mileage is not a complete safety ranking
A disengagement is an instance in which autonomous operation is interrupted or a human takes over, as recorded under the reporting rules. The 2022 comparison—95,900 miles per disengagement for Cruise and 17,060 for Waymo—does not by itself establish which system was safer. A disengagement rate can be affected by where and when a company tests, the difficulty of its operating area, what counts as a disengagement, and how much exposure its vehicles have to particular conditions. It also does not capture every relevant outcome, such as collisions or interactions with emergency responders.
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The California DMV recorded 9.1 million AV testing miles in 2023 and 4.5 million in 2024, according to the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) in 2025. The DMV testing total does not include deployment vehicle miles traveled (VMT), and SFCTA says the 2024 decline likely reflects Waymo shifting activity from testing toward deployment. A fall in reported testing mileage therefore does not, by itself, mean that autonomous vehicles drove fewer total miles on California roads.
Separate passenger-trip data illustrate the distinction between testing and commercial deployment. SFCTA reported that CPUC data showed 3,576 San Francisco AV passenger trips in March 2022 and 400,731 in December 2024. Those are passenger trips in a city and month, not statewide DMV testing miles; they should not be treated as interchangeable measures.
What happened to Cruise’s California permits?
California began public-road AV testing under DMV rules in 2014. Waymo received a safety-driver testing permit that year, and Cruise received one in 2015, according to SFCTA’s 2025 account. Cruise became the first company permitted for driverless testing in parts of San Francisco in 2020. By 2022, both Cruise and Waymo were authorized to test and operate without a safety driver throughout the city.
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In 2023, both companies received approval for unrestricted fared passenger service across San Francisco. Later that year, California revoked Cruise’s driverless testing and deployment permits following a serious injury collision. Waymo continued operating and expanded to parts of San Mateo, Santa Clara and Los Angeles counties. These developments changed the companies’ ability to test and deploy in California; they do not alter the earlier 2022 mileage comparison.
How to make a fair AV company comparison
Testing totals are useful for understanding activity and scale, but a sound comparison needs more than a single leaderboard number. SFCTA notes that available public data are insufficient for an objective local assessment, and proposes a safety-focused permitting approach that connects operating expansion to demonstrated performance.
- Separate testing from deployment: distinguish safety-driver testing VMT, driverless testing VMT, and deployment VMT. Reporting systems and required disclosures can differ.
- Compare outcomes as well as exposure: consider collisions, disengagements, unplanned stops, first-responder obstructions, and vehicle retrievals alongside miles driven.
- Account for operating conditions: geography, fleet size, speed, hours, weather, and the complexity of the operating domain can make two mileage totals poor like-for-like comparisons.
- Check the reporting period and rules: annual figures, definitions, and what operators are required to report affect what a published total can establish.
SFCTA describes a proposed five-stage permitting framework, from initial safety-driver testing to full commercial driverless operations. Each stage would use operational constraints—including fleet size, geography, hours, and weather—and progressively relax them as an operator demonstrates performance. It is a framework for evaluating expansion, not a claim that mileage alone proves safety.
What the latest available figures do—and do not—establish
As of June 2025, California had 30 safety-driver testing operators, six driverless-testing operators, and three deployment operators, based on DMV figures reported by SFCTA. That broader field makes a simple two-company description less representative of the state’s current permit landscape than it was during the period captured by the 2022 comparison.
The available reporting does not establish a verified 2026 company-by-company California leaderboard. SFCTA also notes that Waymo stopped publicly disclosing San Francisco trip numbers beginning in 2025. The sound conclusion is therefore specific: Waymo and Cruise were the dominant names in California testing through 2022, with Waymo leading safety-driver mileage and Cruise leading driverless mileage and miles per disengagement in 2022. Those historical measures do not settle which company is currently ahead overall or which has the best safety record.
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