Waymo under scrutiny after hitting child near Santa Monica school
A Waymo self-driving taxi recently struck a child near a Santa Monica elementary school during drop-off hours, sparking an investigation into the incident by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The child suffered minor injuries, Waymo said. After being hit, the child got up and walked to the sidewalk, where witnesses called 911.
Santa Monica Police said officers responded to the Jan. 23 incident near 24th and Pearl streets, near Grant Elementary School. After being assessed by firefighters, the child was released.
The investigation revealed that the child was running across the street towards the school when he was hit. Waymo said the child appeared behind a large SUV.
“The event occurred when the pedestrian suddenly entered the roadway behind a large SUV, placing himself directly in the path of our vehicle,” Waymo said in a statement. “The Waymo driver braked abruptly, reducing his speed from approximately 17 mph to less than 6 mph before contact was made.”
There were other children, a crossing guard and several vehicles double-parked nearby when the crash occurred, according to NHTSA.
Waymo reported the incident to NHTSA’s Office of Defect Investigation and said it would fully cooperate. The Waymo involved was operating on the company’s fifth-generation automated driving system, without a safety driver.
The company said the incident demonstrated Waymo’s security benefits.
“OUR peer-reviewed model shows that a fully attentive human driver in this same situation would have made contact with the pedestrian at approximately 14 mph,” the release said. “This significant reduction in speed and impact severity is a demonstration of the Waymo Driver’s material safety advantage.”
A spokesperson for the city of Santa Monica referred questions to police.
Santa Monica sued Waymo in December after ordering the company to cease nighttime operation of two autonomous vehicle charging stations. Waymo in turn sued the city, alleging that city officials knew the charging facilities would operate 24 hours a day and maintain a fleet of commercial electric vehicles.
The Alphabet-owned company also came under fire late last year for running over and killing KitKat, a beloved San Francisco neighborhood cat. A few weeks later, another Waymo hit a loose dog in the city.
Video evidence shows KitKat remained under the vehicle for several seconds before it rolled away, crushing him. A woman was crouched next to the car, trying to lure KitKat to safety. A human driver would have easily noticed something was wrong, critics said.
Waymo has been the subject of several NHTSA investigations and recalls, including the recall of more than 1,200 vehicles last year due to a software defect that led to a series of minor crashes.
Waymo launched services in Los Angeles in 2024 and covers more than 120 square miles of the county, not including Los Angeles International Airport. The company got its start as the Google Self-Driving Car Project, which began in 2009 and put its first self-driving car on the road in 2015. The project was renamed Waymo in 2016 under Google’s parent company and launched its driverless ride-hailing service known as Waymo One in 2020.
