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.
Jenifer Hanke of San Francisco (courtesy of Jenifer Hanke)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.
Hanke, a technology consultant and fitness coach, said she sustained a brain injury and damage to her spine and soft tissues from the crash. She is seeking unspecified damages, and compensation for medical costs and lost wages.
“I have been out of work for many months and recovery has been slower than expected,” Hanke said.
Waymo did not respond to requests for comment.
The lawsuit, filed June 6, is proceeding through court as Waymo’s white Jaguar SUV robotaxis with laser whirligigs on top spread around the Bay Area. Earlier this week, the company, spun off from Google in 2017, added robotaxi service in Brisbane, South San Francisco, San Bruno, Millbrae and Burlingame, along with parts of Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills. Waymo launched its robotaxis in San Francisco amid controversy in 2023, and began operating outside that city last August, with operations in Daly City, Broadmoor and Colma, later adding service in parts of northern Santa Clara County.
Waymo in online marketing materials says its robotaxi Safe Exit sensor and warning systems provide 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 company cites San Francisco’s transit agency in noting that collisions between cyclists and vehicle doors — incidents known as “doorings” — are the city’s second most common collisions causing death or injury.
The passengers from the robotaxi whose door hit Hanke said at the scene that no alert had been given before one of them opened the door into the bike lane, Hanke said. The lawsuit alleged “a malfunction, failure to engage, or design flaw” in the alert system.
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Her lawsuit accused Waymo of making “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 just opened a vehicle factory in Hayward, highlights its autonomous minivans’ sliding passenger doors as “staying out of the way of cars and cyclists.”
A police report on Hanke’s crash noted damage to the robotaxi door she hit, and to the right side of the second Waymo that Hanke bounced off of. The responding officer concluded that the collision was caused by a passenger “opening a door unsafely into traffic,” in violation of a California traffic law.
The section of the state vehicle code cited by the officer — 22517 — makes it illegal for anyone to open a door into moving traffic “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 identify the passengers to Hanke or the lawyers representing her.
Although the lawsuit claimed the passengers “departed the scene without rendering aid or complying with post-collision legal obligations,” Hanke’s lawyers are not currently seeking to involve them in the lawsuit, a lawyer for Hanke said.
“We are presently asserting that Waymo is solely liable for what occurred,” attorney Aria Noosha said.
The Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission recommends that people exiting cars use the “Dutch reach,” and open doors with the far hand, which turns the body toward the window and possible approaching cyclists.
Hanke said she has not touched a bicycle since the incident.
“Cycling was my primary mode of commuting, a way to experience San Francisco, and a cherished hobby,” she said. “Now, it feels like a source of trauma that haunts me.”
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