NHTSA probes Waymo after its AV struck a child near elementary school

Summarize this content to 100 words: A Waymo vehicle exits a charging lot on Jan. 15, 2026 in Austin, Texas.Brandon Bell | Getty ImagesAlphabet-owned Waymo has informed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that one of its driverless vehicles “struck a child near an elementary school” in Santa Monica, CaliforniaThe Jan. 23 incident is now being investigated by the U.S. vehicle safety authority.According to records posted to the NHTSA website, the child sustained minor injuries. The Waymo collision occurred within two blocks of an elementary school during normal school drop-off hours, while other children, a crossing guard and several double-parked vehicles were nearby. “The child ran across the street from behind a double-parked SUV towards the school and was struck by the Waymo AV,” NHTSA said in a document describing the incident that necessitated their “preliminary evaluation.”The vehicle was running on Waymo’s 5th Generation Automated Driving System with no human safety supervisor in the vehicle. NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigations plans to assess “whether the Waymo AV exercised appropriate caution given, among other things, its proximity to the elementary school during drop off hours, and the presence of young pedestrians and other potential vulnerable road users.” The agency’s investigation will include analysis of the “intended behavior” of Waymo’s driverless vehicles in school zones and neighboring areas, especially during normal school pick-up and drop-off times, as well as the company’s post-impact response.”Our technology immediately detected the individual as soon as they began to emerge from behind the stopped vehicle. The Waymo Driver braked hard, reducing speed from approximately 17 mph to under 6 mph before contact was made,” Waymo said in a statement on their blog.The company wrote that a fully attentive human driver in the same situation would have likely “made contact with the pedestrian” at a higher speed of 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.After the robotaxi struck the child at low speed, the pedestrian “stood up immediately, walked to the sidewalk, and we called 911,” Waymo said. The company also reported that its vehicle “remained stopped, moved to the side of the road, and stayed there until law enforcement cleared the vehicle to leave the scene.”Waymo was involved in a separate incident on Jan. 25 in Los Angeles, where one of its Zeekr vehicles sped through a one-way residential street near Dodger Stadium. The vehicle struck several parked cars, including one that had a person in it.There were no reported injuries, Waymo said in an emailed response.The vehicle was being operated in manual mode by a human specialist at the time of the event. Waymo did not respond to questions about how the vehicle ended up speeding in the incident.Waymo is already facing regulatory scrutiny for the behavior of its robotaxis around school buses. Last week, the National Transportation Safety Board initiated an investigation after reports of Waymo robotaxis illegally passing stopped school buses in several different locations. In a statement posted on X on January 23, the NTSB said it “opened a safety investigation to examine the interaction between Waymo vehicles and school buses stopped for loading and unloading students in Austin, Texas.”The Austin Independent School District previously identified at least 19 incidents where Waymo vehicles passed its school buses, and demanded that Waymo stop using its driverless vehicles during school bus hours in Austin until the safety concerns could be resolved.NHTSA had earlier started “to investigate the performance of the Waymo ADS around stopped school buses and the system’s ability to follow traffic safety laws concerning school buses,” it said in a letter the agency sent to Waymo.While both the NTSB and NHTSA are vehicle safety watchdogs in the U.S. government, their roles are distinct.The NTSB investigates accidents to determine underlying causes of damaging or concerning incidents. The board also makes safety recommendations to regulators (including NHTSA) and the auto industry.– CNBC’s Jennifer Elias contributed to this reportWATCH: 2025: The year that the robotaxi went mainstream with Waymo leading the pack



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