The incident took place on Jan. 23, within two blocks of a school, where children, a crossing guard, and several double-parked vehicles were present, according to NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI).
The investigation report stated that the child ran into the street and towards the school from behind a double-parked SUV. The child was then hit by the automated, self-driving vehicle. Waymo reported that the child sustained minor injuries.
Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., specializes in autonomous vehicle technology. The company developed and operates fully driverless vehicles that rely on lidar (light detection and ranging), radar, and camera-based systems integrated with proprietary software.
Waymo began as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009 and later launched commercial robotaxi services in cities including Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
The vehicle that hit the child is Waymo’s fifth-generation automated driving system. According to the report, there was no human safety operator on board at the time of the incident.
As part of the investigation, the NHTSA stated that it opened a preliminary evaluation to see if the automated driving system used “appropriate caution given, among other things, its proximity to the elementary school during drop off hours, and the presence of young pedestrians and other potential vulnerable road users.”
The ODI stated that it will also investigate how automated driving systems are designed to operate, or the vehicles' “intended behavior” in school zones and neighboring areas, especially during normal school pick-up/drop-off times, and the vehicles' keeping to posted speed limits.
How the self-driving car responded after hitting the child is also being investigated by the ODI.
There are 3,067 Waymo vehicles equipped with the fifth-generation automated driving system, according to the report.
Waymo stated that “the pedestrian suddenly entered the roadway from behind a tall SUV, moving directly into our vehicle's path,” adding that their “technology immediately detected the individual as soon as they began to emerge from behind the stopped vehicle.”
According to Waymo, the self-driving vehicle “braked hard, reducing speed from approximately 17 mph to under 6 mph before contact was made.”
“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,” the company stated.
After the incident, Waymo reported that the pedestrian immediately stood up and walked to the sidewalk. The company called 911, and the vehicle remained stopped, then moved to the side of the road, staying there until law enforcement gave clearance to leave the scene.