(Photo by Brontë Wittpenn/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
A Waymo self-driving car hit a child near a school in Santa Monica, California, last week. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating, but Waymo is indicating it was a low-speed collision.
The incident occurred on Friday near an elementary school “during normal school drop-off hours,” according to the NHTSA’s report. “The child ran across the street from behind a double-parked SUV towards the school and was struck by the Waymo AV. Waymo reported that the child sustained minor injuries."
Waymo reported the incident to the NHTSA that day. In a blog post, the company says, "the event occurred when the pedestrian suddenly entered the roadway from behind a tall SUV, moving directly into our vehicle's path.
"Our technology immediately detected the individual as soon as they began to emerge from behind the stopped vehicle," it adds. "The Waymo Driver braked hard, reducing speed from approximately 17 mph to under 6 mph before contact was made.”
Waymo says its own simulations show “that a fully attentive human driver in this same situation” would have also struck the child, but at about 14mph. “This significant reduction in impact speed and severity is a demonstration of the material safety benefit of the Waymo Driver,” it says.
Still, the incident might be the first time a Waymo has hit a child. In December, the NHTSA opened investigations into the company’s vehicles after they failed to stop near school buses in Atlanta and Austin, Texas, though no children were harmed. In response, Waymo issued new software to its vehicles. (In San Francisco, a Waymo did kill a bodega cat last year. RIP KitKat.)
The company has been steadily expanding to more US cities while touting the safety benefits of driverless cars. The vehicles have been involved in accidents here and there, but Waymo says the "Waymo Driver is better than humans at avoiding crashes that result in injuries." In July 2025, the NHTSA closed a 14-month investigation into 22 incidents involving 440 Waymo vehicles, including 17 collisions, none of which resulted in injuries.
The NHTSA notes that the Waymo car in Santa Monica was using a fifth-generation automated driving system, introduced in 2020, without a safety driver onboard. The regulator expects its investigation will examine whether the vehicle operated normally in a school zone.
There's already some tension between Waymo and residents of Santa Monica, who have complained about the noise the Waymos make while charging their batteries and pulling into overnight parking lots, including loud backup alarms.