The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have launched an investigation into a Santa Monica crash involving a Waymo vehicle and a child on Jan 23,
Per the report from the NHTSA, the child walked out from behind a tall SUV during morning drop-off at Grant Elementary School and was struck by the Waymo vehicle moving at a slow speed. After the strike, the Waymo automatically called 9-1-1 and pulled over until police cleared the scene. The child sustained minor injuries and was able to get up and walk to a nearby sidewalk.
According to Waymo, the vehicle was travelling at 17 mph when it detected the child and immediately slammed on the brakes. When the child was struck, the vehicle was travelling around six mph. Waymo also noted that they believe that an alert human driver would not have been able to avoid the collision.
This incident will only add to the ongoing evaluation by the NHTSA of Waymo’s performance regarding school-related traffic controls. This includes issues such as Waymo illegally passing stopped school buses in multiple states and Waymo robotaxi’s failing to comply with time-based speed limits in school zones.
Waymo is cooperating with investigators and alerted the NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation once the Santa Monica Police cleared the scene.
