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Retracted · 2026-07-24

Duplicate ingestion of the same event as waymo-child-struck-santa-monica-jan-2026, the canonical record for "Waymo Santa Monica child-struck (Jan 2026)". This duplicate is retracted to suppress it from aggregates; its own URL stays index,follow per the retraction fairness policy.

Incident · Collision · Retracted

Waymo driverless robotaxi struck a child near Santa Monica elementary school, prompting NHTSA preliminary evaluation

Original claim shown above is no longer asserted. See the retraction notice for context.

A Waymo driverless vehicle operating on its 5th Generation Automated Driving System with no human supervisor struck a child who ran across the street from behind a double-parked SUV near an elementary school in Santa Monica, California during school drop-off hours. The child sustained minor injuries.

Waymo voluntarily reported the incident to NHTSA, which opened a preliminary evaluation (PE26001) to assess whether the AV exercised appropriate caution given proximity to the school during drop-off hours.

Occurred 2026-01-23 · Waymo

How to read this record

Incident records on DEPLOY are compiled from public sources (regulatory filings, news reports, and operator disclosures) and reflect what has been reported and tracked to date. They are not legal findings, determinations of fault, or safety ratings, and may be updated as new information is verified. See the sources below for the underlying references.
Track Waymo driverless robotaxi struck a child near Santa Monica elementary school, prompting NHTSA preliminary evaluation

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Sources (1)

  1. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/29/waymo-nhtsa-crash-child-school.html

Status history

  • Retracted · 2026-07-24

    Duplicate ingestion of the same event as waymo-child-struck-santa-monica-jan-2026, the canonical record for "Waymo Santa Monica child-struck (Jan 2026)". This duplicate is retracted to suppress it from aggregates; its own URL stays index,follow per the retraction fairness policy.

  • Active · 2026-07-04 · agent:depth

Common questions

What happened in Waymo driverless robotaxi struck a child near Santa Monica elementary school, prompting NHTSA preliminary evaluation?
A Waymo driverless vehicle operating on its 5th Generation Automated Driving System with no human supervisor struck a child who ran across the street from behind a double-parked SUV near an elementary school in Santa Monica, California during school drop-off hours. The child sustained minor injuries. Waymo voluntarily reported the incident to NHTSA, which opened a preliminary evaluation (PE26001) to assess whether the AV exercised appropriate caution given proximity to the school during drop-off hours. This incident was later retracted; see the retraction banner at the top of the page for the correction.
When did this incident occur?
The incident is recorded as occurring on January 23, 2026 on the DEPLOY registry. The date reflects the underlying real-world event, not the registry record's creation date.
Who was involved in Waymo driverless robotaxi struck a child near Santa Monica elementary school, prompting NHTSA preliminary evaluation?
The incident is recorded as involving Waymo on the DEPLOY registry. No specific robot model is linked to this incident in the registry.
Has anyone responded to Waymo driverless robotaxi struck a child near Santa Monica elementary school, prompting NHTSA preliminary evaluation?
No responses to this incident are recorded on the DEPLOY registry. Operators, manufacturers, or affected parties can submit responses to the editorial team; absence is not a guarantee no response was issued.
What is the current status of Waymo driverless robotaxi struck a child near Santa Monica elementary school, prompting NHTSA preliminary evaluation?
This incident is retracted on the DEPLOY registry. The page remains so the correction reaches readers, but the incident is suppressed from aggregate counts (company / model / location) so it no longer counts against anyone.
Methodology: Verified · 1 source (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-07-14

Verification posture

Verified

Medium confidence

Review state

Stable

Last reviewed 2026-07-14

Sources by quality tier

1
secondary-established-publication
Established publication

The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.

Methodology surface for Waymo driverless robotaxi struck a child near Santa Monica elementary school, prompting NHTSA preliminary evaluation.

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Canonical ID a449b34c-7f82-47c6-b2a8-693ae5b4bb61