On its first day of operations in Charlotte, a Waymo robotaxi was also involved in its first accident in the city — a minor collision in uptown.
While Waymo taxis eventually will be driverless, there was a human trainer in the car at the time of the incident, which was not Waymo’s fault, a company spokesman told The Charlotte Observer Friday.
Waymo rolled out its plans Wednesday morning for bringing its driverless taxis to Charlotte, part of an expansion plan for the company owned by Google parent Alphabet. In Charlotte, Waymo plans to initially have its vehicles operated by human drivers as they map and learn the city’s streets.
Crash Breakdown
The minor wreck occurred Wednesday near Truist Field in the 500 block of W. Fourth Street, according to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department incident report.
At 4 p.m., an unknown suspect’s vehicle struck the Waymo car in a hit-and-run incident, according to the report. The driver failed to stop at the scene of the accident and provide identification and insurance information.
Waymo’s account was similar to CMPD’s. A manually driven Waymo vehicle was proceeding along Fourth Street when it was cut off by another vehicle that crossed a double yellow line, according to the company. The other vehicle then made an abrupt stop and reversed into the Waymo vehicle.
Waymo’s autonomous specialist reported no injuries, and the vehicle sustained no damage. Additional information about the accident was not released by the company. The incident was earlier noted on a social media post by Observer news partner WSOC.
Charlotte Expansion Plans
Waymo already provides autonomous ride-hailing services in major cities including Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Earlier this week, a dozen Waymo white Jaguars were spotted in a gravel lot near Bank of America Stadium in uptown. The company said the size of its fleet and the service area will gradually expand over time.
While Waymo did not release specific Charlotte locations for its current testing, it said it will follow the same phased rollout used in other markets. That process moves from manual driving to autonomous mode with a trained specialist behind the wheel, eventually transitioning to fully driverless service.
Waymo maintains that its self-driving technology is safer than human operators, citing data from more than 127 million miles of driving. According to company figures, its vehicles are involved in 10 times fewer serious-injury crashes and 12 times fewer pedestrian crashes than human drivers in the same environments.
Safety Record and Criticism
The company has faced criticism because of previous incidents. In December, NPR reported that Waymo planned a voluntary software recall following multiple reports that its driverless taxis illegally passed stopped school buses.
In January, Waymo voluntarily contacted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about one of its driverless cars striking a young pedestrian in Santa Monica, California.
