A lady severely damage in a bicycle crash with a Waymo robotaxi is suing the corporate, claiming one in all its autos pulled over in a no-stopping zone subsequent to a motorcycle lane, and a passenger opened a door into her path — regardless of the automobile’s “Safe Exit” system touted by the Mountain View firm as safety for passing cyclists.
Jenifer Hanke of San Francisco (courtesy of Jenifer Hanke)
Simply after midday on February 16, Jenifer Hanke was using in a downtown San Francisco bike lane, returning to her condominium. “It was a beautiful Sunday,” Hanke, 26, recalled in a press release to this information group. Forward and to her proper, a driverless Waymo robotaxi had pulled over in a no-stopping, tow-away zone, her lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Courtroom alleged.
Instantly, one of many automobile’s 4 passengers opened the rear left door into the bike lane, the lawsuit claimed. On the identical time, a second Waymo within the highway to Hanke’s left started veering to the fitting towards the curb and into the bike lane, narrowing Hanke’s doable escape path, the lawsuit alleged. Hanke hit the door of the stopped robotaxi.
“The impact propelled me into the Waymo on my left before I slammed onto the asphalt,” Hanke stated. She lay disoriented on the bottom earlier than hobbling to the sidewalk, she stated.
Hanke, a know-how guide and health coach, stated she sustained a mind harm and harm to her backbone and mushy tissues from the crash. She is in search of unspecified damages, and compensation for medical prices and misplaced wages.
“I have been out of work for many months and recovery has been slower than expected,” Hanke stated.
Waymo didn’t reply to requests for remark.
The lawsuit, filed June 6, is continuing by courtroom as Waymo’s white Jaguar SUV robotaxis with laser whirligigs on high unfold across the Bay Space. Earlier this week, the corporate, spun off from Google in 2017, added robotaxi service in Brisbane, South San Francisco, San Bruno, Millbrae and Burlingame, together with components of Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills. Waymo launched its robotaxis in San Francisco amid controversy in 2023, and commenced working outdoors that metropolis final August, with operations in Daly Metropolis, Broadmoor and Colma, later including service in components of northern Santa Clara County.
Waymo in on-line advertising supplies says its robotaxi Secure Exit sensor and warning programs present departing passengers with “explicit audio and visual alerts that inform them when a cyclist or other road user is approaching as they exit the car.” The corporate cites San Francisco’s transit company in noting that collisions between cyclists and car doorways — incidents often known as “doorings” — are town’s second most typical collisions inflicting loss of life or harm.
The passengers from the robotaxi whose door hit Hanke stated on the scene that no alert had been given earlier than one in all them opened the door into the bike lane, Hanke stated. The lawsuit alleged “a malfunction, failure to engage, or design flaw” within the alert system.
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The group stated it had been their first Waymo trip, appeared “anxious and confused,” and walked away after a couple of minutes, leaving Hanke ready for an ambulance and police, Hanke stated.
Her lawsuit accused Waymo of constructing “profit-driven decisions to continue placing its vehicles in situations where they are likely to injure cyclists — including dooring events and unsafe curbside drop-offs — because modifying its system or business model would reduce efficiency and profitability.”
Waymo’s budding robotaxi rival Zoox, which simply opened a car manufacturing unit in Hayward, highlights its autonomous minivans’ sliding passenger doorways as “staying out of the way of cars and cyclists.”
A police report on Hanke’s crash famous harm to the robotaxi door she hit, and to the fitting facet of the second Waymo that Hanke bounced off of. The responding officer concluded that the collision was brought on by a passenger “opening a door unsafely into traffic,” in violation of a California site visitors legislation.
The part of the state car code cited by the officer — 22517 — makes it unlawful for anybody to open a door into shifting site visitors “unless it is reasonably safe to do so and can be done without interfering with the movement of such traffic.”
Waymo, the lawsuit claimed, refused to determine the passengers to Hanke or the attorneys representing her.
Though the lawsuit claimed the passengers “departed the scene without rendering aid or complying with post-collision legal obligations,” Hanke’s attorneys should not at present in search of to contain them within the lawsuit, a lawyer for Hanke stated.
“We are presently asserting that Waymo is solely liable for what occurred,” legal professional Aria Noosha stated.
The Bay Space’s Metropolitan Transportation Fee recommends that folks exiting automobiles use the “Dutch reach,” and open doorways with the far hand, which turns the physique towards the window and doable approaching cyclists.
Hanke stated she has not touched a bicycle because the incident.
“Cycling was my primary mode of commuting, a way to experience San Francisco, and a cherished hobby,” she stated. “Now, it feels like a source of trauma that haunts me.”
