Waymo to defend self-driving safety record, warn on China competition

WASHINGTON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Self-driving company Waymo on Wednesday will defend its safety record before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee after federal agencies opened investigations into a vehicle striking a child near an elementary school and incidents involving robotaxis driving past were loading or unloading parked school buses.

The Alphabet-unit GOOGL.O said in written testimony for Wednesday's hearing that its self-driving vehicles have "been involved in 10 times fewer serious injury or worse crashes" compared to human drivers covering the same mileage in the same conditions and said its safety efforts were recently the subject of an independent audit.

Waymo also called on Congress to pass legislation to advance self-driving vehicles arguing U.S. leadership "in the autonomous vehicle sector is now under direct threat. The United States is locked in a global race with Chinese AV companies for the future of autonomous driving, a trillion-dollar industry comparable in strategic importance to flight and space travel."