• A Waymo self-driving vehicle struck a child near a Santa Monica elementary school.
• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation into the incident.
• The child suffered minor injuries and is reported to have emerged from behind a double-parked SUV.
• Waymo's autonomous vehicle reduced speed significantly before the impact.
• The investigation will examine safety protocols near school zones during peak hours.

A Waymo self-driving vehicle struck a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica, California, during school drop-off hours, prompting an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The incident occurred on January 23, and the child sustained minor injuries after emerging from behind a double-parked SUV, according to reports from abcnews and latimes.

The investigation will assess whether the Waymo vehicle exercised appropriate caution given its proximity to the school during busy drop-off times. The NHTSA's preliminary evaluation aims to understand the vehicle's intended behavior in such environments, particularly in the presence of vulnerable road users like young pedestrians, as noted by latimes and aljazeera.

According to Waymo, the vehicle detected the child immediately as they emerged, braking hard and reducing its speed from approximately 17 mph to under 6 mph before the incident occurred. The company claims this demonstrates potential safety benefits of their technology, stating that a human driver in a similar situation would have likely collided with the child at around 14 mph, as reported by latimes and aljazeera.

Following the accident, Waymo stated that emergency services were alerted and that the vehicle remained on-site to cooperate with authorities until law enforcement cleared it, according to abcnews. As a result of this incident, the NTSB announced it would also conduct its investigation into the circumstances surrounding the event.