A woman severely hurt in a bicycle crash with a Waymo robotaxi is suing the company, claiming one of its vehicles pulled over in a no-stopping zone next to a bike lane, and a passenger opened a door into her path — despite the car’s “Safe Exit” system touted by the Mountain View company as protection for passing cyclists.
Just after noon on February 16, Jenifer Hanke was riding in a downtown San Francisco bike lane, returning to her apartment. “It was a beautiful Sunday,” Hanke, 26, recalled in a statement to this news organization. Ahead and to her right, a driverless Waymo robotaxi had pulled over in a no-stopping, tow-away zone, her lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court alleged.
Suddenly, one of the car’s four passengers opened the rear left door into the bike lane, the lawsuit claimed. At the same time, a second Waymo in the road to Hanke’s left began veering to the right toward the curb and into the bike lane, narrowing Hanke’s possible 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 said. She lay disoriented on the ground before hobbling to the sidewalk, she said…