By Ian Duncan and Lisa Bonos, The Washington PostA Waymo autonomous vehicle hit a child near a Santa Monica elementary school last week, the company and federal regulators said Thursday. The Waymo detected the child and braked, slowing itself to 6 mph before impact, the company said in a blog post outlining the incident. The company, part of Google parent Alphabet, said the child walked to the sidewalk and Waymo called 911. The safety of autonomous vehicles is under intense scrutiny as Waymo and its competitors deploy robotic taxis to cities across the country. In the Santa Monica case, Waymo said a human driver would probably have hit the child at a higher speed.