Waymo Probed After Robotaxi Struck Child Near California School

U.S. auto safety regulators are investigating a Waymo autonomous vehicle that struck a child near a school in Santa Monica, California, the second recent probe to examine the behavior of the Alphabet Inc. unit’s robotaxis near children.

The vehicle collided with the child who was running across a street from behind a double-parked SUV, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Thursday in a notice disclosing the probe. The Jan. 23 incident took place within two blocks of an elementary school during drop off hours, with children, a crossing guard and other double parked vehicles nearby, NHTSA said.

Waymo, which announced the incident earlier, said the child sustained minor injuries, according to the regulator.

The episode adds to federal scrutiny of how Waymo’s autonomous robotaxis handle encounters near young pedestrians. The company is already under examination in Austin, after multiple instances in which its vehicles drove past or failed to fully stop for school buses that were loading or unloading students.

NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board have opened investigations into the Austin incidents. The NTSB probe, which was announced last week, follows a voluntary software recall from Waymo in December.

Waymo acknowledged the Santa Monica incident in a blog post late Wednesday, saying its autonomous driving system “immediately detected” the child and “braked hard” to slow from about 17 miles per hour to under 6 miles per hour before the collision.

The company defended its autonomous driving system, saying its “peer-reviewed model” showed that a fully attentive human driver in the same situation would have struck the child at roughly 14 miles per hour.

“This significant reduction in impact speed and severity is a demonstration of the material safety benefit of the Waymo Driver,” the company said.

NHTSA said it would examine whether the Waymo vehicle “exercised appropriate caution” and the automated driving system’s intended behavior in and around school zones.

Waymo charges fares for fully autonomous rides without a human safety monitor in half a dozen US cities, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, as well as rides through Uber Technologies Inc. in Austin and Atlanta. It also plans to aggressively expand the service this year in many more American cities as well as in the UK.

The company is well-funded by its parent, Google, and a top-tier list of external investors. Waymo is currently raising more than $15 billion at a valuation of nearly $100 billion, Bloomberg reported last month.

Top photo: Waymo vehicles at a charging station in Santa Monica, California.