Overview
- Waymo said a driverless vehicle struck a small unleashed dog Sunday night in San Francisco’s Western Addition, with the dog’s condition unknown and the company pledging follow‑up and support.
- A separate video shows a Waymo robotaxi passing within feet of an active LAPD stop in downtown Los Angeles; the company said the encounter lasted about 15 seconds and ended without injuries.
- Waymo has begun autonomous testing in Philadelphia with a specialist behind the wheel after securing a PennDOT certificate, with city officials monitoring plans for a future public launch.
- Manual mapping and data‑collection drives start this week in Baltimore, Pittsburgh and St. Louis as part of Waymo’s staged approach before any fully driverless service.
- NHTSA is conducting a preliminary evaluation of Waymo’s behavior around stopped school buses, official records list multiple animal collisions since 2021, and the company cites sizable crash‑injury reductions versus human drivers.