Independent foundation for automated road safety in Europe
Let the safer driver drive.
About 19,400 people died on the roads of the European Union in 20251, and around 100,000 more were seriously injured. The European Commission attributes nine out of ten road deaths and injuries to human error2. Delta-V Europe makes the evidence-based case for automated driving and works to bring it to every European road sooner.
The Δv principle
In a crash, Δv decides who walks away. In policy, the speed of change decides how many people never have to find out.
Δv (delta-v) is the sudden change in speed that crash researchers use to measure how severe an impact is. We took it as our name because it covers both halves of our work. We want to make crashes rarer and less severe, and to raise the speed at which Europe adopts the technology that does that.
The problem
Europe's roads are getting safer too slowly.
The EU promised to halve road deaths and serious injuries by 2030. Measured from 2019, road deaths are down by 15%. The Commission itself says most member states are not on track1.
Road deaths in the EU against the 2030 promise
View as table
| Year | Road deaths | Steady path |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | ≈22,800 | 22,800 |
| 2020 | – | 21,400 |
| 2021 | – | 20,100 |
| 2022 | – | 18,900 |
| 2023 | – | 17,700 |
| 2024 | – | 16,700 |
| 2025 | 19,400 | 15,600 |
| 2026 | – | 14,700 |
| 2027 | – | 13,800 |
| 2028 | – | 12,900 |
| 2029 | – | 12,200 |
| 2030 | – | 11,400 |
In 2025 alone, about 3,800 more people died than a steady path to the EU's own target allows.
Dashed line: a steady path from 2019 to the 2030 target, falling 6.1% a year. Delta-V calculation from European Commission figures1. 2019 is derived from the Commission's table, which puts 2025 15% below 2019, rounded.
The human factor
Machines don't drink, doze or scroll.
An automated system does not drink, does not pick up a phone and does not get tired at three in the morning. It keeps watching in every direction at once. Alcohol, speed and distraction each sit behind a large share of the deaths on Europe's roads.
Shares overlap: one crash can involve several factors.
The evidence
The safer driver is already on the road.
Waymo's driverless cars have covered 271 million miles (437 million km) without a human driver in five US cities. Compared with human drivers on the same roads, they were involved in far fewer crashes that hurt people7.
Fewer crashes than human drivers on the same roads
Reduction in crash rate, Waymo rider-only driving, data through June 2026
View as table
| Crash type | Reduction | Crashes avoided |
|---|---|---|
| Serious injury or worse | −95% | 55 |
| Pedestrian injury | −93% | 86 |
| Cyclist injury | −86% | 56 |
| Any injury | −82% | 841 |
| Airbag deployment | −82% | 358 |
| Motorcyclist injury | −82% | 36 |
Peer reviewed
The method behind these figures was published in Traffic Injury Prevention. Out of eleven crash types, the authors found none where the driverless system did significantly worse8. The authors work for Waymo, and the paper covers data up to January 2025.
Insurance claims
Waymo and reinsurer Swiss Re compared insurance claims over 25.3 million miles (40.7 million km). The driverless cars produced 92% fewer bodily-injury claims and 88% fewer property-damage claims than human drivers9.
These are one company's published figures. We want every system, from every manufacturer, measured the same way and in public.
The deployment gap
Europe is watching from the kerb.
The cars that will make Europe's roads safer are being proven in Phoenix and Wuhan. Europe builds excellent cars, and the automotive sector supports 13.8 million direct and indirect jobs, 6.1% of EU employment14. If the safety case is made elsewhere, the industry will follow it there.
Momentum
Europe has started moving. Now it needs speed.
EU rules allow type approval of fully automated vehicles, at first in small series only15.
The Commission's Automotive Industrial Action Plan promises at least three large-scale cross-border testbeds from 202616.
The EU lifts the small-series limit for one use case: automated valet parking can now be approved in unlimited numbers2223.
The Dutch vehicle authority RDW grants European type approval with provisional validity in the Netherlands for Tesla FSD (Supervised), a supervised driver-assistance system17.
Eighteen member states, the Netherlands among them, back cross-border testbeds for automated vehicles18.
UNECE's World Forum (WP.29) votes for a draft UN Regulation on automated driving systems21. They must be at least as safe as a competent and careful human driver20. The rule takes effect unless a fifth of the parties object within six months of 30 July 202619.
Each of these steps took years. The software in the cars improves every few weeks. Our job is to close that gap.
Join us
We are looking for people who want to build this.
Founding members, board members and research partners. Engineers, road-safety researchers, insurers, disability advocates and everyday drivers are all welcome.