{
 "public_id": "AIR-2026-0023",
 "incident_id": "2026-01-waymo-santa-monica-child-struck",
 "date_disclosed": "2026-01-29",
 "date_occurred": "2026-01-23",
 "title": "A Waymo struck a child running from behind a double-parked SUV toward an elementary school during drop-off, prompting an NHTSA probe",
 "class": "safety_failure",
 "attack_surface": "autonomous_ops",
 "initial_vector": "none_autonomous_action",
 "agent_capability_abused": [
  "autonomous_driving",
  "occlusion_reasoning",
  "context_aware_speed"
 ],
 "target_product": "Waymo 5th Generation Automated Driving System",
 "target_vendor": "Waymo (Alphabet)",
 "autonomy_level": "fully_autonomous",
 "impact_realized": true,
 "impact_type": [
  "physical_safety"
 ],
 "blast_radius": "one child with minor injuries; NHTSA investigation PE26001 into the 5th-generation ADS",
 "cve": [],
 "taxonomy": {
  "owasp_asi": [],
  "mitre_atlas": [],
  "labels": [
   "no_adversary",
   "occlusion",
   "children_at_risk",
   "context_aware_caution",
   "regulatory_investigation",
   "physical_world"
  ]
 },
 "defense_present": "pedestrian detection and school-zone behaviour",
 "defense_bypassed": true,
 "fix_shipped": "none at disclosure; federal investigation opened",
 "primary_sources": [
  "https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/1/29/us-opens-probe-after-a-waymo-self-driving-car-hit-a-child-near-a-school",
  "https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1361"
 ],
 "verified_quote": "The agency said there were other children, a crossing guard, and several double-parked vehicles in the vicinity.",
 "confidence": "high",
 "notes": "Every cue for extreme caution was present and legible — a crossing guard, other children, double-parked cars creating occlusions, school drop-off hours — and the agent's speed and margin did not reflect them. Occlusion is unavoidable; failing to infer higher risk from an obviously child-dense scene is the defect. Self-reported by Waymo to NHTSA. AI Incident Database incident 1361.",
 "risk_category": "safety_harm",
 "risk_secondary": [
  "legal_ip"
 ],
 "risk_subcategory": "Physical Injury by Autonomous Action",
 "risk_sub_secondary": [],
 "ai_entity": "non_generative_autonomy",
 "agency": "agent_acted",
 "agency_debatable": false,
 "agency_reason": "the vehicle struck the child during school drop-off",
 "vector_family": "none_autonomous",
 "vector_detail": "none_autonomous_action",
 "guardrail_kind": [
  "physical_safety_system"
 ],
 "guardrail_outcome": "silent",
 "xrefs": {
  "aiid": [
   1361
  ],
  "atlas": [],
  "cve": [],
  "ghsa": []
 },
 "primary_asi": "none",
 "agent_framework": "robotaxi_stack",
 "model_provider": "none",
 "model_name": "",
 "detection_mechanism": "unknown",
 "tool_access": "unknown",
 "financial_loss_band": "unknown",
 "eai_category": "unsafe_actuation",
 "eai_domain": "agent_behaviour",
 "eai_secondary": [],
 "eai_reason": "subcategory: Physical Injury by Autonomous Action",
 "asi_curated": [],
 "asi_scope": "out_of_scope",
 "asi_provenance": "out_of_scope",
 "asi_reason": "out of scope: non_generative_autonomy: no ASI mechanism describes the failure",
 "submitted_by": "EAI Internal"
}