Waymo Hits a Dog In San Francisco, Reigniting Safety Debate

A Waymo robotaxi struck a small unleashed dog in San Francisco -- just weeks after another Waymo killed a beloved neighborhood cat. The dog's condition is unknown. The Los Angeles Times reports: The incident occurred near the intersection of Scott and Eddy streets and drew a small crowd, according to social media posts. A person claiming to be one of the passengers posted about the accident on Reddit. 'Our Waymo just ran over a dog,' the passenger wrote. 'Kids saw the whole thing.' The passenger described the dog as between 20 and 30 pounds and wrote that their family was traveling back home after a holiday tree lighting event. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has recorded Waymo taxis as being involved in at least 14 animal collisions since 2021.

'Unfortunately, a Waymo vehicle made contact with a small, unleashed dog in the roadway,' a company spokesperson said. 'We are dedicated to learning from this situation and how we show up for our community as we continue improving road safety in the cities we serve.' The spokesperson added that Waymo vehicles have a much lower rate of injury-causing collisions than human drivers. Human drivers run into millions of animals while driving each year.

'I'm not sure a human driver would have avoided the dog either, though I do know that a human would have responded differently to a 'bump' followed by a car full of screaming people,' the Waymo passenger wrote on Reddit. One person who commented on the discussion said that Waymo vehicles should be held to a higher standard than human drivers, because the autonomous taxis are supposed to improve road safety. 'The whole point of this is because Waymo isn't supposed to make those mistakes,' the person wrote on Reddit.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.