The San Francisco Police Department said in an email to SFGATE that the Waymo car hit a cyclist in the area of 17th and Mississippi streets at about 3 p.m. Officers rushed to the scene and found the cyclist with non-life-threatening injuries. SFPD said the collision is under investigation and did not provide details on what caused the cyclist and autonomous vehicle to collide.
According to Waymo, the company's vehicle fully stopped at a four-way intersection before proceeding into the intersection as a large truck was driving through in the opposite direction. "The cyclist was occluded by the truck and quickly followed behind it, crossing into the Waymo vehicle's path," the company said in a statement. "When they became fully visible, our vehicle applied heavy braking but was not able to avoid the collision."
Waymo personnel called police. The company said the cyclist left the scene "reporting only minor scratches." There was one passenger in the car and they were not injured, according to the company.
Waymo has operated in the city for over a decade and ramped up operations in 2021. It was given authorization by the California Public Utilities Commission in 2022 to provide taxi service to the public and now has about 250 cars in the city, though not all of them are in operation simultaneously, the company said.
The company says that its research shows the vehicles are involved in fewer crashes than human drivers. Regardless, the autonomous vehicles have come under scrutiny by some city residents and officials concerned by their traffic errors and snafus.
S.F. Supervisor Shamann Walton responded to the news of the collision on social media, saying, "So much for safety."
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