Waymo Sues California DMV to Withhold Driverless Crash Data from Public

Waymo filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Motor Vehicles to withhold information of driverless car crash data from being made public, according to numerous news outlets and originally reported by the Los Angeles Times.

The autonomous vehicle operator claims that the data should be considered a trade secret, according to the report.

California’s DMV has over 60 companies permitted to operate test vehicles on public roads. There are only a few that are approved to operate fully autonomous vehicles without safety drivers at the wheel.

According to the reports, Waymo is seeking to keep private information about how it handles certain autonomous vehicle emergencies, how it responds when its vehicles attempt to drive somewhere they are not intended to go, and how they handle steep hills or tight curves.

The lawsuit was filed in Sacramento County Superior Court.

The company says making public the process by which Waymo analyzes crashes “could provide strategic insight to Waymo’s competitors and third parties regarding Waymo’s assessment of those collisions from a variety of different perspectives, including potential technological remediation."

“Every autonomous vehicle company has an obligation to demonstrate the safety of its technology, which is why we’ve transparently and consistently shared data on our safety readiness with the public,” Nicholas Smith, a spokesperson for Waymo, said in a statement. “We will continue to work with the DMV to determine what is appropriate for us to share publicly and hope to find a resolution soon.” 

In the report, a spokesperson for the DMV declined to comment on “active litigation.”