Waymo has submitted a contribution to the United States National Road Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigation into a child collision. The first documents appeared on the regulatory website, but their content was completely blacked out on the grounds that they involved commercial secrets. This means that, after the extension, the Waymo response process is at the substantive review stage.
The accident occurred near the school.
The accident occurred on January 23rd near a school in Santa Monica, California. A preliminary report released in March by the United States National Transport Security Committee (NTSB) revealed that a Jaguar I-Pace auto-driving taxi in Waymo was travelling 17 miles an hour, starting to brake when a 9-year-old girl entered the road and colliding with her six miles an hour.
The collision position was reported to be close to the right-front light area of the vehicle. The girl went to the side of the road on her own when she fell down, reporting only minor injuries and not being taken to a doctor.
NHTSA asks for speed limits in school areas.
NHTSA announced the opening of the investigation a week after the accident and sent 12 questions to Waymo on 23 March, some of which also included sub-questions. The regulator asked Waymo to provide a wider range of information on how it judged the speed limits of the school area, whether it had received complaints relating to the conduct of driving around the school, and the relevant software documents.
According to the information currently available, regulators are concerned not only with single collisions per se, but also with the way in which automatic driving systems operate in the school perimeter.
Waymo completed submission
According to the original arrangement, Waymo was required to provide a response to the NHTSA Disability Investigation Office by 8 May. However, the documents made public this week indicate that Waymo sent a letter on 1 May requesting an extension and seeking clarification of some of the issues from the regulator.
Waymo subsequently responded to some of the questions in a second letter on 8 July. NHTSA eventually agreed to allow more time for 10 of the 12 issues. Waymo has indicated this week that all relevant material has now been submitted.
Additional information:NHTSA indicated that, in addition to the first documents, which had been made public, the responses were still under review and would continue to be uploaded to the investigation files upon completion. At the same time, the NTSB conducts another independent investigation, which usually results in a more complete final report about 12 months later.