A Waymo Robotaxi struck and injured a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica, California, the company admitted in a recent announcement, prompting an investigation by federal regulators.
The incident, which took place on January 23, occurred after the child “suddenly entered the roadway from behind a tall SUV, moving directly in our vehicle’s path,” Waymo claimed. The robotaxi “immediately detected” the pedestrian and “braked hard,” slowing down from 17 miles per hour to under 6 miles per hour, before colliding with the child.
“Following contact, the pedestrian stood up immediately, walked to the sidewalk, and we called 911,” the company claimed. “The vehicle remained stopped, moved to the side of the road, and stayed there until law enforcement cleared the vehicle to leave the scene.”
That same day, Waymo says it reached out to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which has now opened an investigation into the autonomous vehicle company. In its report to the regulator, Waymo said the child had sustained “minor injuries,” the NHTSA said in a recent filing.
The accident comes as Waymo is already under scrutiny from regulators over reports of its robotaxis illegally blowing past stopped school buses, ignoring their warning lights and extended stop arm. The NHTSA opened an investigation into the phenomenon last October, and last week, the National Transportation Safety Board ramped up the pressure on the company by announcing its own. Over 20 school bus incidents were reported in Austin, Texas, and at least six in Atlanta, Georgia. In a particularly brazen flouting of traffic laws, one Waymo allegedly drove near the students who were disembarking from the bus.
The regulators will be additionally concerned that Waymo has seemingly struggled to discipline its cars. Though it deployed a patch to address the school bus violations in November to over 3,000 of its robotaxis, an Austin school district reported at least one violation that occurred after the patch was applied.
That this latest incident also concerns school children may not be a coincidence. The NHTSA stated that the collision took place within two blocks of an elementary school during normal school drop off hours. There were also “other children, a crossing guard, and several double-parked vehicles in the vicinity” — clear clues that a driver should pick up on to drive extra carefully.
The investigation will determine whether Waymo “exercised appropriate caution given, among other things, its proximity to the elementary school during drop off hours, and the presence of young pedestrians and other potential vulnerable road users.”
In its own defense, Waymo argued that its simulation model showed that a “fully attentive human driver in this same situation would have made contact with the pedestrian at approximately 14 mph,” which is several miles per hour faster than the Waymo’s reported speed.
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