The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, is officially investigating a Waymo robotaxi after it struck a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica, as reported by The Hill. This incident went down during the chaotic school drop-off hours. According to the agency, the child was running across the street when they emerged suddenly from behind a double-parked SUV and were hit by the self-driving car. Thankfully, the child sustained only minor injuries.
The company reported the incident and, while committing to full cooperation with the federal probe, they’re essentially spinning the collision as proof that their technology is actually safer than a human driver.
Waymo underscored that its system, which they call the Waymo Driver, instantly detected the individual the moment they began to emerge from behind the stopped vehicle. The car was traveling at about 17 miles per hour and was able to slow significantly before impact, ultimately striking the child at only 6 miles per hour.
What’s truly wild about this situation isn’t just the crash itself, but Waymo’s immediate reaction
The company used this reduction as a direct comparison to human capability. They stated, “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 is using this data point to argue that the significant reduction in impact speed and severity is a clear demonstration of the “material safety benefit” of their autonomous tech.
Despite the company’s compelling defense, the NHTSA is focusing on the bigger picture, and this is where the investigation gets interesting. The agency isn’t just looking at how fast the car slowed down; they’re investigating whether the Waymo car “exercised appropriate caution” given the specific environment.
You know how chaotic school drop-off is. The streets are packed with parents, double-parked SUVs, and kids who are not always paying attention. The agency wants to know if the autonomous system should have been programmed to operate with greater defensive awareness or at an even lower speed simply because it was close to an elementary school during peak pedestrian hours. Notably, Waymo was previously spotted ignoring extended stop arms as it went past stopped school buses.
Waymo says they are totally committed to improving road safety, both for their riders and everyone else they share the road with. They also stressed that being transparent when incidents occur is part of that commitment. They will “cooperate fully” with the NHTSA throughout the probe. We’ll be watching this one closely, because the findings could set a new standard for how robotaxis must operate when navigating the most unpredictable environments, like streets full of running kids or an active police standoff.
Published: Jan 30, 2026 12:00 pm