Waymo recalls vehicles to fix flooding issue
▼ Summary
– Waymo issued a software update to nearly 4,000 vehicles to help avoid flooded roads, as part of a recall announced by NHTSA.
– The recall addresses robotaxis slowing but not stopping when encountering untraversable flooded roads, affecting fifth- and sixth-generation systems.
– Waymo has not fully solved the problem and is still developing the final remedy for the recall, according to NHTSA documents.
– The recall follows incidents in central Texas, including an empty robotaxi being swept away in San Antonio, prompting a pause in operations there.
– This is one of multiple Waymo recalls, following previous fixes for crashes with towed vehicles, parking gates, and school buses.
Waymo has rolled out a software update to nearly 4,000 of its autonomous vehicles as part of a recall announced Tuesday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The fix is designed to help the robotaxis better avoid flooded roads, though a complete solution remains in development.
According to NHTSA documents, the core problem is that Waymo’s self-driving cars would slow down but not fully stop when encountering flooded lanes they could not safely cross. This behavior affected vehicles operating on both the company’s fifth- and sixth-generation autonomous systems. The recall covers 3,791 vehicles, offering a clearer picture of Waymo’s fleet size across roughly a dozen U. S. cities.
This marks another chapter in Waymo’s recall history. The company’s first recall occurred in February 2024 after two robotaxis in Phoenix independently collided with the same towed vehicle. Subsequent recalls addressed low-speed crashes involving parking gates and telephone poles, as well as illegal driving near school buses.
The latest recall was triggered in late April after Waymo’s robotaxis struggled with flooding in central Texas. In one notable incident, an empty robotaxi was swept away in San Antonio, prompting the company to pause operations there. The initial software update imposes restrictions on times and locations where the risk of encountering flooded, high-speed roadways is elevated, NHTSA confirmed.
Waymo acknowledged the issue in a statement: “We have identified an area of improvement regarding untraversable flooded lanes specific to higher-speed roadways, and have made the decision to file a voluntary software recall with NHTSA related to this scenario.” The company added that it is “working to implement additional software safeguards” and has already put mitigations in place, including refining extreme weather operations during heavy rain and limiting access to areas prone to flash flooding.
NHTSA noted that Waymo is still “developing the final remedy for this recall,” indicating that more permanent fixes are expected in the future.
(Source: TechCrunch)
