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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 robotaxi strikes child near Santa Monica elementary school, NHTSA opens investigation

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

A Waymo driverless robotaxi struck a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica, California. NHTSA opened a preliminary evaluation into the incident on January 28, 2026. Waymo claimed a fully attentive human driver in the same situation would have also struck the child at 14 mph.

Occurred 2026-01-24 · 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 robotaxi strikes child near Santa Monica elementary school, NHTSA opens investigation

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Sources (2)

  1. https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/29/waymo-robotaxi-hits-a-child-near-an-elementary-school-in-santa-monica/
  2. https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls

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 · 2026-07-06 · agent:depth

Common questions

What happened in Waymo robotaxi strikes child near Santa Monica elementary school, NHTSA opens investigation?
A Waymo driverless robotaxi struck a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica, California. NHTSA opened a preliminary evaluation into the incident on January 28, 2026. Waymo claimed a fully attentive human driver in the same situation would have also struck the child at 14 mph. 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 24, 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 robotaxi strikes child near Santa Monica elementary school, NHTSA opens investigation?
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 robotaxi strikes child near Santa Monica elementary school, NHTSA opens investigation?
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 robotaxi strikes child near Santa Monica elementary school, NHTSA opens investigation?
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 · 2 sources (1 primary) · last reviewed 2026-07-14

Verification posture

Verified

High confidence

Review state

Stable

Last reviewed 2026-07-14

Sources by quality tier

1
secondary-industry-publication
Industry publication
1
primary-regulatory-filing
Regulatory filing

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

Methodology surface for Waymo robotaxi strikes child near Santa Monica elementary school, NHTSA opens investigation.

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Canonical ID 2b1826c0-3f14-45e2-851b-8c8396a28516