In January 2026, a Waymo robotaxi collided with a nine-year-old girl in Santa Monica, California. The vehicle was traveling at 17 miles per hour and slowed to six miles per hour before the incident. Following the crash, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched an investigation and requested information from Waymo, which provided redacted responses citing confidentiality.
We’ll perform a deep-dive analysis of all sources and publicly available external materials, then prepare a structured timeline of events, an in-depth report explaining the background and context, and multiple perspectives.