A self-driving Waymo taxi hit a dog in San Francisco, reigniting a heated debate over autonomous vehicle safety just weeks after one killed a popular neighborhood cat.
On Sunday, around 8 p.m. in San Francisco’s Western Addition neighborhood, a Waymo carrying passengers ran over a small, unleashed dog, the company confirmed.
The dog’s condition is unknown.
The incident occurred near the intersection of Scott and Eddy streets and drew a small crowd, according to social media posts.
A person claiming to be one of the passengers posted about the accident on Reddit.
“Our Waymo just ran over a dog,” the passenger wrote. “Kids saw the whole thing.”
The passenger described the dog as between 20 and 30 pounds and wrote that their family was traveling back home after a holiday tree lighting event. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has recorded Waymo taxis as being involved in at least 14 animal collisions since 2021.
The San Francisco Animal Care and Control department said it received a report about the accident Monday morning. Waymo confirmed the collision Monday and said it had contacted the passenger to check on them.
“Unfortunately, a Waymo vehicle made contact with a small, unleashed dog in the roadway,” a company spokesperson said. “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 spokesperson added that Waymo vehicles have a much lower rate of injury-causing collisions than human drivers. According to Waymo’s safety data, Waymo vehicles were involved in 91% fewer crashes that caused serious injuries or worse when compared to human drivers over the same distance in the same cities.
Human drivers run into millions of animals while driving each year.
“I’m not sure a human driver would have avoided the dog either, though I do know that a human would have responded differently to a ‘bump’ followed by a car full of screaming people,” the Waymo passenger wrote on Reddit.
One person who commented on the discussion said that Waymo vehicles should be held to a higher standard than human drivers, because the autonomous taxis are supposed to improve road safety.
“The whole point of this is because Waymo isn’t supposed to make those mistakes,” the person wrote on Reddit.
Some San Francisco residents are still mourning the death of KitKat, a beloved corner-store cat who roamed the Mission District neighborhood. KitKat was run over and killed by a Waymo in October after walking under the driverless vehicle.
Two witnesses who spoke to the news outlet Mission Local said they saw KitKat sitting in front of the stopped vehicle for about seven seconds before walking underneath as the vehicle pulled away.
KitKat’s death sparked demonstrations against Waymo and prompted San Francisco Supervisor Jackie Fielder to urge California lawmakers to allow residents to vote on whether autonomous cars can operate in their neighborhoods.
“A human driver can be held accountable,” Fielder told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Here, there is no one to hold accountable.”
Waymo is expanding in California, and announced last month that it would begin offering rides on freeways in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix. The company also expanded its service area in Northern California to more than 260 square miles.
In Los Angeles, the taxis roam a 120-square-mile area and have been operating for more than a year.
Waymo is owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet and is a key player in the emerging field of driverless vehicles, which also includes Amazon’s taxi service Zoox and Tesla’s robotaxi.
Zoox recently began offering unpaid driverless rides in San Francisco amid growing sentiment against autonomous vehicles in the city. Still, many residents support the autonomous efforts and believe they will lead to safer streets.
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