Waymo crash in Outer Sunset sends two passengers to evaluation, driver flees

Two passengers in a Waymo robotaxi requested medical evaluation after a crash Friday night at 47th Avenue and Lincoln Way in the Outer Sunset, where police said the other driver fled on foot. The collision happened in wet conditions after evening rain and left visible damage on the front side of the autonomous vehicle, near the front tire area.

The San Francisco Fire Department got the call at 9:28 p.m., and police later reported responding to a head-on crash at about 9:38 p.m. Officers found the Waymo and an unoccupied car at the scene, then began trying to identify the driver who ran away. The exact condition of the two passengers and the description of the fleeing driver had not been released in the initial reports.

The crash immediately sharpened a question that has shadowed robotaxi service in San Francisco: when an autonomous vehicle is involved, does the city still face the same danger from reckless human driving, or does the technology add a new layer of risk on streets already crowded with fast-moving traffic, bikes and pedestrians? In this case, the primary suspect was not the Waymo system itself but the driver who left the scene, a reminder that hit-and-run cases often turn on witness accounts, nearby cameras and vehicle data.

Waymo has been operating paid, driverless rides for the public across San Francisco since June 25, 2024, and the company said in a March 19 safety update that its fleet has driven more than 170 million fully autonomous miles. Those figures are often central to Waymo’s case that its vehicles can reduce serious crashes over time, but every new collision with passengers inside also puts the company’s promises under fresh scrutiny.

San Francisco has seen that scrutiny before. In January 2025, a deadly multi-vehicle crash in SoMa involving a Waymo robotaxi became one of the city’s most closely watched autonomous-vehicle cases, intensifying debate over how much risk can be tolerated on public streets. City officials, regulators and neighborhood leaders have continued to question the pace and shape of robotaxi expansion even as the California Public Utilities Commission has allowed Waymo to broaden service in the Bay Area.

Investigators in the Outer Sunset case were expected to review the vehicle’s sensor records and any available street footage as they worked to identify the fleeing driver. For now, the clearest facts are the most immediate ones: two passengers needed evaluation, one driver disappeared into the night, and another San Francisco intersection added a new hit-and-run case to the city’s robotaxi debate.