Safety regulators review autonomous vehicle conduct during morning drop-off.
Waymo’s self-driving taxi service is under federal scrutiny by two agencies after one of its autonomous vehicles struck a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica on the morning of January 23, according to a blog post on the company’s website.
Waymo said it reported the crash to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and that the child suffered minor injuries. The agency has opened an investigation into the incident and is reviewing whether the vehicle exercised appropriate caution in a school-zone environment and The National Transportation Safety Board will also investigate the incident and Waymo incidents near schools, according to Reuters.
The blog states, “The Waymo Driver braked hard, reducing speed from approximately 17 mph to under 6 mph before contact was made. To put this in perspective, 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”
Waymo claimed the child ran into the street from behind a double-parked SUV and was struck as the autonomous vehicle moved forward toward the school. The child stood up immediately after the impact and walked to the sidewalk, according to Waymo. Firefighters
Waymo said it called 911, and the vehicle remained stopped, then moved to the side of the road and stayed there until law enforcement cleared it to leave.
In the blog post, Waymo said, “we will cooperate fully with them (NHTSA) throughout the process.” Waymo is already involved in a contentious fight over the company’s charging lot in Santa Monica.
