Waymo robotaxi hits a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica

Re:Waymo robotaxi hits a child near an elementary school in ... by veltas on Thursday January 29, 2026 @10:52AM (#46811806)

Absolutely, I can tell you right now that many human drivers are probably safer than the Waymo, because they would have slowed down even more and/or stayed further from the parked cars outside a school; they might have even seen the kid earlier in e.g. a reflection than the Waymo could see.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Waymo robotaxi hits a child near an elementary school in ... by mlyle on Thursday January 29, 2026 @11:07AM (#46812101)

It seems it was driving pretty slow (17MPH) and they do tend to put in a pretty big gap to the right side when they can.

There are kinds of human sensing that are better when humans are maximally attentive (seeing through windows/reflections). But there's also the seeing-in-all-directions, radar, superhuman reaction time, etc, on the side of the Waymo.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Waymo robotaxi hits a child near an elementary school in ... by jobs_throwaway on Thursday January 29, 2026 @02:24PM (#46815199)

And the fact that Waymo is never drunk/high/tired/texting, which an astounding portion of human drivers are.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Waymo robotaxi hits a child near an elementary school in ... by davorak on Friday January 30, 2026 @12:26AM (#46820844)

17MPH is way to fast, depending on the details. I do not think the article gives the details to know if it was a reasonable speed to be going or not, enough details to know it might be to fast, like proximity to a school and children present, yes.

[ Parent | on HN ]