Multiple people injured in collision involving Waymo near downtown Los Angeles
Waymo insists its self-driving car bears no responsibility for injuring multiple people in Pico Union, even as LAPD’s investigation continues and initial reports pointed to an auto-pedestrian crash.
Multiple people were injured when a Waymo autonomous vehicle collided with a pedestrian near downtown Los Angeles, yet the company quickly moved to absolve its technology of any blame.
The incident, initially logged as an auto-pedestrian collision, occurred in Pico Union on a Sunday morning. LAPD confirmed at noon that its investigation remained active, offering no immediate determination of fault.
Waymo’s defensive posture highlights a familiar pattern in autonomous vehicle accidents: the operator asserts innocence before investigators have finished their work. In this case, the company explicitly suggested its car was not at fault, despite the injuries and the early classification of the crash.
Self-driving cars were sold as safer than human drivers, yet collisions like this one keep exposing the gap between marketing and messy street-level reality. When a robotaxi strikes a person and the first public statement is a denial of responsibility, public trust erodes a little further.
The fact that police are still investigating at midday Sunday, hours after the event, suggests key details, speed, sensor data, pedestrian movement, have yet to be reconciled with Waymo’s internal logs.
What happens when the final LAPD report lands will matter: either Waymo’s blanket disclaimer holds up, or regulators will once again have to ask why these vehicles keep injuring people while their makers insist the machines are blameless.
Original reporting: LA Times.
Original reporting: LA Times, California.
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