Parents in Santa Monica are used to chaotic school drop-off, but they are not used to a driverless car clipping a child in the crosswalk. When a Waymo robotaxi hit a student near an elementary campus, the company’s response was as jarring as the impact itself, arguing that its Automated Driving System reacted faster and hit the child more gently than a human driver likely would have. That claim, backed by a peer-reviewed model, now sits at the center of a pair of federal investigations and a much bigger argument over what “safer than human” really means when kids are involved.
What actually happened on that Santa Monica street
The crash unfolded near Grant Elementary School in Santa Monica during the morning rush, when families were walking and driving kids to class. A Waymo autonomous vehicle, running on the company’s fifth-generation Automated Driving System with no human at the wheel, was moving through the school zone as a child ran into the street. Federal summaries say the student came from between or behind parked vehicles, a classic blind-spot scenario that already makes school traffic one of the most stressful parts of the day for any parent.
According to Waymo, the child ran into the street from behind a double-parked SUV and straight into the robotaxi’s path as it was moving toward the curb. The company says its system slammed the brakes, cutting speed from about 17 mph to under 6 mph before contact, a detail echoed in descriptions of The Waymo Driver “braking hard.” After impact, the child stood up, walked to the sidewalk, and was evaluated by Responders from the fire department, who released the student with minor injuries.
Waymo’s ‘we did better than you would’ defense
Waymo’s messaging has been strikingly confident for a company whose car just hit a kid. In filings and public statements, the company leans on a peer-reviewed model that simulates how an average human driver would have handled the same scenario. That analysis, provided by Waymo, argues a person behind the wheel would likely have struck the child at around the original 17 mph, not the reduced speed the robotaxi achieved. In other words, the company is not just saying its system worked, it is saying it outperformed the human most parents imagine in that driver’s seat.
That framing shows up in multiple accounts of the crash. One report notes that Waymo claimed a fully attentive human would have had less time to react, given the child’s sudden appearance from behind the SUV. Another recounts how the company emphasized that, Following contact, the pedestrian stood up immediately, walked to the sidewalk, and “we called 911,” a detail also echoed in descriptions that the vehicle itself initiated a 911 call. In a separate account of the same incident, Waymo said it called “911” and kept the vehicle stopped until authorities arrived, underscoring how the company wants the story to be about its system’s composure, not just its mistake.
Federal scrutiny and a bigger fight over school-zone safety
Federal regulators are not taking Waymo’s word for it. The NHTSA, formally known as The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, has opened a defect probe into how the robotaxi handled the school-zone environment and the moments after the collision. One summary notes that National Highway Traffic will scrutinize both the crash dynamics and Waymo’s actions afterward, including how the vehicle responded and whether its behavior around parked cars and buses is robust enough. Another account frames the case as one of the Key Points in a second safety probe into Waymo’s operations.
At the same time, NTSB investigators are looking at the broader safety picture, including how autonomous systems behave around children and school buses. Reports note that Waymo robotaxi operations have already drawn attention for issues with school bus stops in several locations, and that EST-time filings mark this as another formal case file for regulators. One overview of the federal response notes that Federal officials are investigating after the Waymo self-driving vehicle struck a child near an elementary school, while another notes that WASHINGTON based agencies are focused on how the car navigated around parked vehicles.
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