Self-driving car accidents in San Francisco and the Bay AreaHit by a Waymo or Zoox? Call us.

This page is for anyone hurt in a crash with a driverless car in San Francisco, San Mateo County or Santa Clara County: a rider, a person walking or on a bike or motorcycle, the driver of another car, or a family after a death. It covers the two companies carrying public riders, the airports, city records, documented incidents, police reports, courts and public claims. The statewide law is on our California self-driving car accident lawyer page and our California autonomous vehicle law page.

Bay Area robotaxi status

The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) decides whether a company may test or deploy a self-driving car, and its permit holder page lists them. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) decides whether a company may carry passengers and charge for it. Its permits page lists Waymo as the only holder of fared driverless authority. Zoox's pilot permit "does not authorize the acceptance of any monetary compensation for transportation provided in test autonomous vehicles."

Tesla's Bay Area rides are not driverless. Tesla told the CPUC on January 30, 2026 that it "does not currently possess the requisite permits to operate autonomous rideshare vehicles in California" and that "all rides are conducted with a safety driver in the driver's seat" using Full Self-Driving (Supervised), a Level 2 driver-assistance system. Vehicle Code 38750 excludes such systems from the definition of an autonomous vehicle. Our Tesla Autopilot and FSD crashes page covers those cases.

Authorized versus served

Where Waymo may operate and where it picks up riders are two different maps. The CPUC approved fared driverless service "throughout the city of San Francisco" in Resolution TL-19144 on August 10, 2023. CPUC staff added more of the Peninsula on March 1, 2024 and the City of San José on May 19, 2025.

On August 14, 2026, CPUC staff approved a much larger area. Waymo's request described parts of 18 counties and named newly added Bay Area cities including Alameda, Antioch, Berkeley, Corte Madera, Half Moon Bay, Oakland, Napa, Santa Rosa and Walnut Creek. None of them appears on Waymo's rider map as of October 5, 2026, and Waymo's rides page lists Sacramento under "Up Next," not among the places it serves. Authorization tells you where a company may drive, not that a car seen there carried riders. Our self-driving car crash lookup helps identify the company from the car.

Waymo's Bay Area map

Waymo's San Francisco page says "Anyone in San Francisco can take a ride today" and "Riders can travel throughout the San Francisco Peninsula, from SF down to San Jose." Waymo described the area in January 2026 as "our 260 sq mi Bay Area service." The map in its help center, checked October 5, 2026, shades all of San Francisco and labels Daly City, Brisbane, South San Francisco, San Bruno, Millbrae, Burlingame, San Mateo, Foster City, Belmont, Redwood City, Atherton, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Sunnyvale, San Jose and Campbell. It is a rider service area, not a legal boundary.

Waymo began offering freeway rides in the Bay Area on November 12, 2025. Its freeway help page now says "Freeway access is currently limited, so not all riders can take freeway trips yet." A crash on a freeway is usually handled by the California Highway Patrol (CHP), as our freeway accidents page explains.

Zoox in San Francisco

Zoox runs its own purpose-built robotaxi. It opened its Zoox Explorers program to the public on November 18, 2025, saying riders could travel within a service area that "includes the majority of the SoMa, Mission, and Design District neighborhoods" and could "ride for free." In March 2026 Zoox announced that, "Beginning this spring," service would reach "a large portion of the eastern half of the city," including the Marina, North Beach, Chinatown and Pacific Heights. Zoox's map loads by script, and we could not confirm that the larger area is live. Its San Francisco page still invites people to "Join the waitlist to ride in San Francisco." The DMV lists Zoox for driverless testing in Foster City and San Francisco. Zoox riders, terms and vehicle rules are on our Zoox accidents page.

Airport rides

CPUC rules bar driverless passenger service at an airport without "the express authorization of the relevant airport authority." Waymo told the CPUC on September 24, 2025 that SFO had authorized its service under "the commercial ground transportation permit issued to Waymo by SFO." Waymo's airport help page limits SFO pickups to "just outside the Rental Car Center" and the Grand Hyatt at SFO, and says "We're offering SFO access to a limited number of riders to begin with." The page lists no terminal curb pickup at SFO. Waymo's San Francisco page still says it does not serve SFO; the help page is the more specific source.

Oakland International Airport does not appear on the CPUC's list of airport authorizations as of October 5, 2026. San Jose's airport and the Palo Alto and San Carlos airports do, and they are covered in the San Jose and Peninsula section below.

San Francisco city records

The city cannot permit or ban robotaxis. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency's AV page says: "San Francisco has no permitting authority over AVs on city streets." The city does collect complaints. Its 311 form for autonomous vehicles asks which company was involved, such as "Waymo or Zoox," gives a tracking number, and says reports "will be collected and reviewed for City interaction with autonomous vehicle companies and regulators" within five business days. A 311 report is not a police report and does not start a claim.

On March 2, 2026, the Board of Supervisors' Land Use and Transportation Committee heard File No. 260034, a "Hearing to discuss the impact of the December 2025 power outages on the transportation network and Waymo autonomous vehicles." The San Francisco County Transportation Authority's summary of the hearing reports that more than 1,500 Waymo vehicles stalled at dark intersections or in traffic lanes, and that at least 63 had to be retrieved manually. Waymo's own account of December 23, 2025 says the outage "created a concentrated spike" in requests for confirmation at dark signals, and "This created a backlog that, in some cases, led to response delays contributing to congestion." Waymo says it "temporarily paused our service" and pulled its cars over.

Documented Bay Area incidents

Each row describes a car that was involved in an event, not a finding that it caused one. Waymo's reports come from NHTSA's current and archived crash report files and are the company's own account. The recall details come from Zoox's and Waymo's recall reports. NHTSA's data dictionary warns that report data "may be incomplete or unverified" and that "Summary incident report data are not normalized," so counts do not rank companies. Our evidence page explains how these reports are used.

San Jose and the Peninsula

Waymo opened rides "across the entire Peninsula" on November 12, 2025, "including curbside service at San Jose Mineta International Airport (SJC)." SJC's release that day called it "the first commercial, international airport in California" to "welcome fully autonomous ride-hailing to its terminals." Waymo's airport help page says "Terminal A pickups are at Stop 9," Terminal B pickups are outside the Rental Car Center, and dropoffs are curbside at Departures. Waymo also notified the CPUC that it was authorized at Palo Alto Airport (March 21, 2025) and, by the County of San Mateo Department of Public Works, at San Carlos Airport (September 15, 2025).

Every other company on the DMV's driverless testing list, updated April 3, 2026, has an approved area in Santa Clara or San Mateo County. The list names Nuro in "Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties," WeRide in San Jose and Santa Clara in daytime, Tensor Auto in San Jose, AutoMo in Sunnyvale north of El Camino Real, and Zoox in Foster City. Nuro also holds a DMV deployment permit for San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. A crash with a test vehicle starts with the permit holder's name, which our lookup shows.

Santa Clara County's court locations page lists civil cases at the Downtown Superior Court, 191 N. First St., San Jose. San Mateo County's Civil Clerk's Office is at the Hall of Justice, 400 County Center, 1st Floor, Room A, Redwood City. Surface-street crashes are handled by the city police department or the county sheriff where they happen, and freeway crashes on routes such as US-101 and I-280 usually by the CHP. Each Peninsula city and both counties take their own public claims.

Police reports in San Francisco

1. 1
   Get the agency and report number

   Ask the officer which agency is writing the report, the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), a Peninsula city's police or the CHP, and write down the report number.

2. 2
   SFPD reports

   SFPD says report requests "are processed through the Crime Information Services Unit at 1245 Third Street" and are not available at district stations. "The cost of the report is FREE," traffic collision reports can be requested through an online portal, and SFPD asks requesters to allow at least five business days.

3. 3
   Freeway reports

   The CHP releases its reports to a proper party of interest, such as a driver, passenger or vehicle owner, through form CHP 190, submitted in person or by mail to the CHP Area office.

4. 4
   Who may get the report

   Vehicle Code 20012 requires the agency to disclose the report to any person with a proper interest, including the drivers involved. We request it for our clients.

5. 5
   A notice to the company

   Since July 1, 2026, an officer who sees a driverless car break a traffic law may issue a notice of autonomous vehicle noncompliance to the manufacturer, which must send it to the DMV within 72 hours (DMV AVIM 2026-002). Under Vehicle Code 38752, the notice "shall not create a presumption that the autonomous vehicle is unsafe."

Our self-driving car crash checklist lists what to photograph and write down at the scene, including the plate and the company markings.

Bay Area courthouses

San Francisco Superior Court's civil clerk is at the Civic Center Courthouse, 400 McAllister St., Room 103. San Mateo and Santa Clara county courts are listed in the San Jose and Peninsula section above. The statute of limitations, the deadline to file a lawsuit for an injury or death, is two years in all three counties (Code Civ. Proc. 335.1).

A rider's claim may not reach a courthouse at all. Waymo's rider terms, last updated September 29, 2026, call for "binding, individual arbitration" and let a rider opt out "within thirty (30) days of the date you first accepted a version of these Terms." Zoox has its own terms. People who were walking, cycling or driving another car never accepted either company's terms. Our robotaxi passenger injuries page explains arbitration.

Claims against a public agency

A claim against Waymo or Zoox is not a government claim. A public agency enters the case only when a city or county vehicle, a dangerous road condition or a broken signal played a part. Then Government Code 911.2 requires a written claim for injury or death "not later than six months after the accrual of the cause of action." In San Francisco, the City Attorney's claims page says to mail or hand-deliver the original form to the Controller's Office Claims Division, 1390 Market Street, 7th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94102, and "We do not accept emailed or faxed claim forms." Peninsula and South Bay cities and San Mateo and Santa Clara counties each take their own claims.

Cases outside this page

• You were riding in the robotaxi. See our robotaxi passenger injuries page.
• You were walking, cycling or on a motorcycle. See our pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists page.
• The car drove away, or you hit a Waymo. See our Waymo insurance and claims page and our Waymo accidents page.
• You want to know who pays. See our page on who is liable.
• Someone died. See our wrongful death lawyer page.
• The crash was in Southern California. See our Los Angeles and San Diego pages.

After you call

A Bay Area robotaxi case turns on which company ran the car, which agency wrote the report and which county hears the case. We identify the company and its permits, request the report, ask the company to preserve its data, check for a federal crash report and a 311 record, and track the six-month and two-year deadlines. Josh Kohanim, Esq. is the firm's founder and trial attorney. Call (424) 235-7879, where Spanish-speaking staff answer the phone, or use the form. No fee unless we recover.