Waymo hits child near California elementary school in latest mishap involving self-driving taxis

A Waymo car hit a child near a California elementary school in the latest mishap involving its fleet of self-driving taxis.

The automatous car company announced on Wednesday that one of its vehicles had “made contact with a young pedestrian” in Santa Monica last Friday. After the incident, Waymo contacted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which opened an investigation.

According to the NHTSA, the child was hit by the Waymo car after running across the street from behind a double-parked SUV toward an elementary school within two blocks. Waymo said in its statement that the child ran “directly into our vehicle’s path.”

Federal regulators noted that the incident happened during normal school drop-off hours and that there were other children and a crossing guard present.

Waymo said its “technology immediately detected the individual as soon as they began to emerge from behind the stopped vehicle.” The robotaxi, which was driving about 17 mph, braked hard and was traveling under 6 mph before hitting the child, according to Waymo.

The company said that if a “fully attentive” human driver had been behind the wheel, they would have hit the child at about 14 mph. “This significant reduction in impact speed and severity is a demonstration of the material safety benefit of the Waymo Driver,” Waymo said.

The NHTSA said that Waymo told the agency that the child sustained “minor injuries.” In its statement, Waymo said the child “stood up immediately” and “walked to the sidewalk” following the crash. The company called 911, and its robotaxi stayed to the side of the road until the cops “cleared the vehicle to leave the scene.”

“We remain committed to improving road safety where we operate as we continue on our mission to be the world’s most trusted driver,” Waymo said.

Earlier this month, news outlet KXAN reported that Waymo cars in Austin were still illegally passing school buses, despite the company saying its software had been updated.

The outlet reported early last December that Waymo cars were filmed passing Austin Independent School District buses while their stop arms and red lights were activated 19 times this school year. The school district confirmed to The Independent on January 14 that there were a total of 24 alleged violations by Waymo cars.

A Waymo spokesperson told The Independent at the time, “Our vehicles have 12x fewer crashes involving injuries to pedestrians compared to human benchmarks and we’re invested in demonstrating exceptional driving performance around school bus interactions that exceeds human-driven vehicles.”