Autonomous vehicles are safer. At least, that’s the conclusion by the first study on the crash rate for self-driving cars, which compared that data to national crash rates. Researchers from Virginia Tech Transportation found that the self-driving cars have a crash rate of 3.2 crashes per million miles, lower than the national rate of 4.2 accidents per million miles. Evidence also suggests that self-driving cars were less likely to be a part of severe crashes with their advanced ability to navigate highways, but sufficient data is still lacking to draw a firm conclusion. Studies like this will be key to pushing autonomous vehicles into the mainstream, and as they continue to develop, that rate of accidents is expected to decline further.