A Waymo robotaxi collided with a Serve delivery robot at 4 mph at a Los Angeles intersection on December 27, with the Waymo system correctly identifying the delivery robot as an inanimate object before applying hard braking.
On December 27, a Waymo robotaxi and a Serve Robotics sidewalk delivery robot collided at a Los Angeles intersection in West Hollywood. Video footage shows the Serve bot crossing a street at night, reaching the curb, backing up to correct itself, and then moving toward the ramp when the Waymo robotaxi making a right turn struck it. A Waymo spokesperson confirmed that the Waymo Driver system correctly observed that the delivery robot was an inanimate object and applied hard braking before making contact at 4 miles per hour. The Serve bot was under remote supervisor control at the time since this is standard procedure for intersection crossings. Neither autonomous vehicle was damaged in the collision, and they remained locked together for about one minute before separating and continuing on their respective paths. There was no passenger inside the robotaxi at the time. This represents the first instance of a Serve bot colliding with a robotaxi according to a Serve spokesperson. Both companies confirmed they have been in contact to work toward avoiding similar incidents in the future.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
AI systems that fail to perform reliably or effectively under varying conditions, exposing them to errors and failures that can have significant consequences, especially in critical applications or areas that require moral reasoning.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Unintentional
Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed
No population impact data reported.