"The US's federal transportation regulator said Thursday it had opened an investigation after a Waymo self-driving vehicle struck a child near an elementary school in southern California last week, causing minor injuries. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the child in Santa Monica ran across the street on 23 January from behind a double parked SUV towards the school and was struck by the Waymo autonomous vehicle during normal school drop-off hours."
"The Waymo Driver 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 post reads. According to Waymo, the child stood up and walked to the sidewalk. The autonomous car moved to the side of the road."
NHTSA opened a preliminary evaluation after a Waymo autonomous vehicle struck a child near a Santa Monica elementary school during normal drop-off hours, causing minor injuries. The child ran from behind a double-parked SUV across the street and was struck while other children, a crossing guard, and several double-parked vehicles were present. The investigation will assess whether the Waymo vehicle exercised appropriate caution near the school, its intended behavior in school zones during pick-up/drop-off times, adherence to posted speed limits, and Waymo's post-impact response. Regulators also opened a probe into Waymo vehicles' approach to school buses after multiple reports of failures to stop or fully slow during drop-offs.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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