A Waymo vehicle leaves a charging station in Austin, Texas, on January 15, 2026.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images
alphabetWaymo, a subsidiary of the company, reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that one of its unmanned vehicles “hit a child near an elementary school” in Santa Monica, California.
The Jan. 23 incident is currently being investigated by U.S. auto safety authorities.
The child suffered minor injuries, according to records posted on the NHTSA website.
The Waymo crash occurred within two blocks of the elementary school during normal school hours, with other children, a railroad crossing guard and several double-parked vehicles nearby.
“The child crossed the road from behind a double-parked SUV toward the school and struck the Waymo AV,” NHTSA said in a document describing the crash, which required a “preliminary evaluation.”
The vehicle was running on Waymo’s fifth-generation self-driving system, and there were no human safety observers in the vehicle.
NHTSA’s Office of Deficiency Investigations will evaluate “whether the Waymo AV exercised reasonable care given, among other things, its proximity to an elementary school during drop-off times and the presence of young pedestrians and other potentially vulnerable road users.”
The agency’s investigation will include an analysis of the “intended behavior” of Waymo’s driverless cars in school districts and neighborhoods, particularly during normal school pick-up and drop-off hours, and the company’s response after the impact.
“Our technology instantly detected a person as soon as they began to emerge from behind a stopped vehicle. The Waymo driver slammed on the brakes and slowed from approximately 17 mph to less than 6 mph before making contact,” Waymo said in a blog post.
The company wrote that a perfectly alert human driver in the same situation would likely have “contacted a pedestrian” at speeds of 14 mph or more.
“This significant reduction in impact velocity and severity demonstrates the significant safety benefits of the Waymo Driver,” the company said.
After the robotaxi struck the child at low speed, the pedestrian “immediately got up and walked to the sidewalk, and we called 911,” Waymo said. The company also reported that its vehicle “remained stopped, moved to the side of the road, and remained there until law enforcement cleared the vehicle to leave the scene.”
Waymo was involved in a separate incident in Los Angeles on January 25th, when one of its Zeekr vehicles careened down a one-way residential street near Dodger Stadium. The vehicle collided with several parked vehicles, including one with people in it.
Waymo said in an emailed response that no injuries were reported.
At the time of the accident, the vehicle was being operated in manual mode by a specialist. Waymo did not respond to questions about how the vehicle ended up speeding in this incident.
Waymo is already facing regulatory scrutiny for its robotaxis operating around school buses.
Last week, the National Transportation Safety Board launched an investigation after reports that Waymo robotaxis illegally passed stopped school buses in multiple locations.
In a statement published in X on January 23, the NTSB said it had “launched a safety investigation to investigate the interaction between a Waymo vehicle and a school bus that stopped to pick up or drop off students in Austin, Texas.”
The Austin Independent School District has previously identified at least 19 incidents in which Waymo vehicles passed school buses and has requested that Waymo discontinue the use of driverless vehicles during Austin school bus service hours until the safety concerns are resolved.
NHTSA had previously begun “an investigation into the performance of Waymo ADS around stopped school buses and the system’s ability to comply with traffic safety laws regarding school buses,” the agency said in a letter to Waymo.
The NTSB and NHTSA are both U.S. government vehicle safety watchdog agencies, but their roles are different. The NTSB investigates accidents to determine the root cause of the injury or incident of concern. The commission also makes safety recommendations to regulators (including NHTSA) and the auto industry.
–CNBC’s Jennifer Elias contributed to this report
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