January 29, 2026
Brake, shake, and debate
Waymo robotaxi hits a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica
Parents panic, techies bicker: ‘safer than humans’ or ‘not near kids’
TLDR: A Waymo robotaxi hit a child at low speed near a school; federal investigators are on it. Comments are split between “robots saved a worse crash” and “keep them away from kids,” with a PR phrasing meme fueling distrust. The stakes: whether communities will allow robot cars near schools.
A Waymo robotaxi hit a child near a Santa Monica elementary school during morning drop-off, and the internet instantly turned into a courtroom. Waymo says the kid darted out from behind an SUV, the car braked hard from around 17 mph to about 6 mph, and injuries were minor. The NHTSA and NTSB opened investigations, with Waymo promising transparency in a blog post. It all lands amid probes into robotaxis illegally passing stopped school buses in Atlanta and Austin.
Comments? Absolute chaos. One camp is blunt: the robot likely prevented a worse outcome. “A human driver would most likely have killed this child,” says one user, arguing we should tally lives saved, not headlines. The other camp is furious: slightly safer isn’t enough near kids. “Self-driving needs to be orders of magnitude safer,” another insists, because humans have “skin in the game.”
And then there’s the meme of the day: Waymo’s line “The vehicle remained stopped, moved to the side of the road” got roasted as Schrödinger’s robotaxi, with snarky comparisons to Cruise’s PR spin. A few nerds tried to sober the thread, asking if Waymo’s control system has formal safety guarantees. Parents weren’t having it. The vibe is simple and loud: trust is broken until the bots prove it, especially around schools and crossing guards.
Key Points
- •Waymo reported its robotaxi struck a child near a Santa Monica elementary school on January 23; injuries were described as minor.
- •Waymo said the pedestrian emerged from behind a tall SUV; the vehicle detected the individual and braked from ~17 mph to under 6 mph before contact.
- •NHTSA opened investigation PE26001 into the crash; Waymo says it will cooperate and contacted NHTSA the same day.
- •NTSB also launched an investigation in coordination with the Santa Monica Police Department.
- •The incident comes amid separate probes into Waymo robotaxis illegally passing stopped school buses in Atlanta and Austin.