Autonomous vehicles make Arizona roads safer. That's no accident

Yahoo

14-04-2025

Arizonans are living in the future, and many in our community may not even know it.
It's become such a part of our everyday lives that you need to look closely to realize there's no one behind the wheel of some cars gliding down streets like Camelback Road and navigating the intricacies of Phoenix traffic at rush hour.
While many other states remain paralyzed by the thought of reconciling technology with older infrastructure, Arizona has done something remarkable: It has embraced rather than shunned self-driving car technology, creating a model rooted in innovation, regulatory humility and the principles of freedom.
This was no accident.
It came from deliberate leadership, according to a new report from the Goldwater Institute, where I work. In 2015, then-Gov. Doug Ducey issued an executive order launching Arizona's experiment in what's been labeled permissionless innovation — the idea that regulatory frameworks should default to openness, transparency and stability.
Rather than allowing bureaucrats to imagine dangers for them to act against, the order required regulators to demonstrate tangible harm before intervening.
The Arizona model — now codified into law — has positioned our state as a leader in innovation while keeping our communities safe by mandating that autonomous vehicle companies meet federal safety standards, respond intelligently to system failures, and maintain full compliance with traffic laws and insurance requirements.
Yet it avoids the reflexive overreach that has plagued other states, where layers of local and state mandates often unintentionally work together to render innovation nearly impossible.
In Arizona, regulatory authority is streamlined at the state level, ensuring safety while avoiding the policy fragmentation that too often creates complicated webs of regulation that stops companies from deploying new technologies before they can even start.
The results speak for themselves.
As of 2024, 13 companies are actively testing and deploying autonomous vehicles across Arizona's roads. Waymo alone has logged more than 20 million autonomous miles in the Phoenix metro area, with peer-reviewed data revealing a dramatic reduction in crashes.
That includes 81% fewer airbag deployments and 78% fewer injury-causing collisions compared to human drivers over the same distance, Waymo reports.
But autonomous vehicles do more than reduce risk on the roads.
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For older adults, people who are blind and those with other disabilities, these vehicles can offer long-overdue freedom and independence. When designed with accessibility in mind — and through strategic partnerships with organizations such as the National Federation of the Blind — companies like Waymo are engineering vehicles that do more than drive: they communicate, accommodate and adapt to meet riders where they are.
A freedom once dependent on others can now be self-directed.
Arizona has earned this success by doing the opposite of our neighbors to the west in California, where multiple government agencies impose broad but fragmented permitting regimes and operational limits.
While caution has its place, the way autonomous vehicles will reshape infrastructure, labor markets and public safety cannot be overstated.
According to economist Jim Rounds, Arizona is likely to attract $6.1 billion in research and development related to autonomous vehicles, creating 39,000 direct jobs and potentially $4.3 billion in economic output.
Rounds also estimates, conservatively, that the industry could generate up to $500 million in tax revenue by 2030 if Arizona's supportive regulatory environment remains intact.
If we want to stay ahead of the pack, the impulse to regulate must be disciplined by humility and trust.
Regulation must remain retrospective — based on demonstrable harm — and must continue to be standardized at the state level.
Embracing a freedom-based model for technology will continue to make our lives better. As other states scramble to rewrite regulations for autonomous vehicles at the municipal level, Arizonans can look toward the future, trusting that our framework embraces both innovation and safety on our roads.
And in doing so, it invites the nation to follow our lead by putting on display the success to back it up.
Brian Norman is director of state affairs at the Goldwater Institute, where he leads the institute's nationwide government affairs strategy. Reach him at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Waymo put Phoenix innovation on the map. That was the point | Opinion