A Waymo robotaxi hit a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica, USA, but it ended with minor injuries, and the «fault» of the unmanned vehicle has not yet been proven.
A Waymo robotaxi hit a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica, USA, but it ended with minor injuries, and the «fault» of the unmanned vehicle has not yet been proven.
The incident occurred on January 23, but the media reported about it only now.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched an investigation into the accident, and Waymo said it will «fully cooperate with this authority throughout the process.»
Waymo said its robo-taxi hit the child at about 10 km/h, but before that it braked sharply at 27 km/h. At the same time, according to the company, the young pedestrian «suddenly stepped out into the road from behind a tall SUV, moving directly into the robo-taxi’s path.»
Waymo said its car «instantly detected the person as they began to exit from behind another vehicle.»
After contact with the robotaxi, the pedestrian immediately stood up and stepped onto the sidewalk, while the vehicle stopped, pulled over to the side of the road, and remained there until law enforcement cleared the scene.
TechCrunch reminds us that the news of this accident came amid an investigation into Waymo over its robo-taxis, which allegedly overtook school buses in violation of regulations. Such incidents have occurred quite a lot.
So now the relevant authority is investigating whether the Waymo robotaxi exercised due care during the incident of hitting a schoolboy.
In its blog, Waymo stated that «a careful human driver in this same situation would have collided with a pedestrian at approximately 14 mph.»
Recall that Waymo is launching its robo-taxis service in London this year.
Previously, dev.ua itself tested driverless electric Jaguars as a taxi service in San Francisco and found out what local taxi drivers say about it.
