SANTA MONICA, CA (AZFamily) — Waymo is under a federal microscope after one of its driverless cars hit a child near an elementary school in Southern California last week.
According to federal investigators, the child ran across the street from behind a double-parked SUV toward the school and was hit by an autonomous car during normal school drop-off hours on Jan. 23, two blocks away from a school in Santa Monica, west of downtown Los Angeles.
The victim had minor injuries.
There were other children, a crossing guard and several double-parked cars in the area, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The Waymo had the company’s 5th Generation Automated Driving System.
NHTSA said the Office of Defects Investigation is now looking into if the driverless car exercised the right amount of caution since it was so close to an elementary school during drop-off hours and because of so many children in the area. ODI will also investigate Waymo’s post-impact response.
Waymo currently has over 1,500 driverless cars operating in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami and Austin, Texas, providing hundreds of thousands of stops across the markets.
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