Waymo has confirmed that on Sunday night one of its driverless robotaxis ran over a small dog in San Francisco, in yet another instance of the company’s cars striking a beloved pet.
“Unfortunately, a Waymo vehicle made contact with a small, unleashed dog in the roadway,” a spokesperson told the San Francisco news outlet Mission Local on Monday. “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 dog’s condition at this time is unclear.
“We have not received a status update on the dog,” the Waymo spokesperson told the outlet.
The incident was first brought to light on Reddit by the passenger inside the car who was riding with their family when the collision happened.
“Our Waymo just ran over a dog. Trying to call customer support,” the passenger wrote in a post on the night of the accident. “Called the police. Crowd is gathering not sure what to do.”
According to the passenger’s account described across multiple posts, the dog, which they said was between 20 and 30 pounds and off its leash, was “rolling around” the middle of the road when the Waymo “rolled right over it.”
“Dog started yelping and screaming,” the rider wrote. “Kids were crying. Wife was screaming.”
In a differing account the passenger told the moderators of the Waymo subreddit, they said they “didn’t see the dog before the impact, but the kids were screaming about it.”
The rider sounded conflicted about whether the robotaxi could’ve done more to avoid the accident. In one post, they wrote that a “distracted driver” might have struck the dog, but that the “average driver would have slammed on the [brakes]” in the same situation.
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