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.

Incident · Collision

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.

Occurred 2026-01-24 · Waymo

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

Machine-readable surfaces

Markdown mirror: /incidents/collision-2026-01-24-waymo.md
JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
REST API: /v1/incidents/2b1826c0-3f14-45e2-851b-8c8396a28516
Data documentation: /data
Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP

Sources (1)

https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/29/waymo-robotaxi-hits-a-child-near-an-elementary-school-in-santa-monica/

Status history

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.
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 an active record on the DEPLOY registry; no retraction or correction has been issued.

Methodology: Unreviewed · 1 source (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-07-06

Verification posture

Unreviewed

Low confidence

Review state

Stable

Last reviewed 2026-07-06

Sources by quality tier

1: secondary-industry-publication; Industry publication

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

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