A man died at a hospital after police say he was struck by a southbound SUV on Maple Avenue near Lucas Drive in northern Dallas last Friday night, the impact throwing him more than 30 feet across the roadway and into the rear of a driverless Waymo vehicle traveling in the opposite direction. The crash happened around 11:30 p.m. last Friday, and the victim has not been publicly identified.
According to the CBS News Texas report on the crash, the Dallas Police Department said the man entered the street and was struck by two vehicles: first the SUV heading south, then the autonomous Waymo vehicle in the northbound lane. Police reported the SUV's impact caused the man to fall into the northbound lane, where the unoccupied Waymo was traveling, and that the SUV driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators, according to WFAA. Waymo confirmed the autonomous vehicle involved was one of its own and said, per the company, that the system detected the man in advance and had slowed to about 5 mph before he struck the vehicle's left rear.
Waymo said the safety of its riders and other road users is its top priority, and that its event response team coordinated with responding officers at the scene. The company added it remained in touch with first responders and was grateful for their quick response, and said it was deeply saddened by the incident, offering its thoughts to the individual's family and friends. Dallas police said the investigation remains ongoing.
A Corridor Already Flagged as Dallas's Deadliest for Pedestrians
The crash occurred on a stretch of Maple Avenue that City of Dallas Vision Zero data and transportation studies had already identified as the most dangerous street for pedestrians in the city, according to Dallas City Hall findings. The two-mile segment recorded 16 fatal or severe injury crashes between 2020 and 2024. City officials had proposed a road diet for the corridor, cutting travel lanes from four to three and adding a center turn lane and bike lanes, but the plan met resistance from business owners and three nearby Southwestern Medical District hospitals worried about traffic congestion and emergency access delays, as reported by CandysDirt.com.
The fatality lands just four days after Waymo removed its Dallas waitlist entirely, opening fully autonomous ride-hailing to anyone in the city without an invitation, as Hoodline reported in its coverage of that expansion. Waymo had operated in Dallas with a rolling waitlist since launching commercial service on February 24, 2026, as part of a four-city rollout that served nearly 150,000 riders across a 50-square-mile territory in central Dallas, with Avis Budget Group handling fleet management and depot operations, according to Briefs Finance.
State Law Leaves Dallas With Little Control Over Robotaxis
Texas law leaves Dallas officials with essentially no authority to independently restrict or suspend autonomous vehicle operations on city streets. Under Subchapter J of Chapter 545 of the Texas Transportation Code, enacted through Senate Bill 2205, autonomous vehicles are regulated exclusively by the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the framework preempts local municipalities from imposing bans or franchise restrictions, according to Justia. That statewide preemption dates to 2017.
Separately, Texas Transportation Code § 545.454 classifies the automated driving system itself as the legal operator for traffic law compliance when it is engaged, meaning any citations go to the vehicle's owner or authorization holder rather than a passenger, per FindLaw. No human driver or passenger is required to supervise the vehicle while the system is active.
National Safety Record and Prior Local Scrutiny
Nationally, federal crash database records reviewed by the Craft Law Firm show Waymo logged 1,429 incident reports across its fleet between July 2021 and November 2025, resulting in 117 injuries and 2 fatalities, though the firm notes the majority of those incidents involved external human drivers striking the autonomous vehicles rather than the reverse. Federal Standing General Orders require automated vehicle operators to report any crash on public roads regardless of fault.
Dallas's Waymo fleet has drawn local scrutiny before. In May, a Waymo vehicle was caught on video running a solid red light at an intersection on Irving Boulevard, an incident Hoodline covered as part of ongoing federal scrutiny of the company's software around traffic signals and school buses. Waymo said at the time that a dimmed right-turn signal had contributed to that error.
The crash also arrives against a broader backdrop of improving road safety citywide. Traffic fatalities across Dallas dropped by nearly half in 2025, falling to 107 deaths from 208 in 2024, marking one of the least deadly years on Dallas roadways since 2015 as part of the city's Vision Zero push, according to The Dallas Observer. Severe injury crashes citywide also fell, from 935 in 2024 to 595 in 2025, even as corridors like Maple Avenue remain flagged as high-risk. Dallas police say their investigation into Friday night's crash is continuing, and the man's identity has not yet been released.
