Waymo recalls nearly 4,000 robotaxis after vehicle drove into flood | Latest Tech News
Have they misplaced their Way-mo?
Alphabet’s glitch-plagued robo-cab subsidiary has yet another pace bump. Waymo has recalled 3,800 autonomous taxis after figuring out a bug that allowed the autos to drive into standing water, per a letter on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) web site.
According to the NHTSA, which is probing the mishap, the software program recall applies to Waymo autos that use the company’s fifth and sixth era automated driving systems (or ADS).
The recall was prompted by an incident that occurred on April 20, when a self-driving car drove into a flooded creek in San Antonio amid inclement climate and was swept away, CNBC reported. Thankfully, there have been no passengers aboard at the time.
A Waymo car makes an attempt to ford a flooded roadway. Facebook/Jerr Stan
Meanwhile, in Austin, Texas, cameras had reportedly caught the wonky autonomous passenger transports puttering proper onto a flooded avenue and coming to a halt, forcing other motorists to drive around them,
While no accidents have been reported, these malfunctions did raise issues over the vehicles’ potential to navigate deluges and other natural disasters.
Reps for Waymo, which prides itself on lowering visitors accidents, said they’d “identified an area of improvement regarding untraversable flooded lanes specific to higher-speed roadways.”
The affected autos that use the company’s fifth and sixth era automated driving systems (or ADS). ALLISON DINNER/EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
“We are working to implement additional software safeguards and have put mitigations in place, including refining our extreme weather operations during periods of intense rain, limiting access to areas where flash flooding might occur,” the spokesperson added.
In the interim, Waymo narrowed its working scope to bolster weather-related safeguards and up to date maps as it really works toward a more everlasting answer.
“We are working to implement additional software safeguards and have put mitigations in place, including refining our extreme weather operations during periods of intense rain, limiting access to areas where flash flooding might occur,” Waymo reps said. Billy Becerra / NY Post
These adjustments have been instituted on April 20.
They’ve also briefly suspended their robo-taxi operations in San Antonio.
This is much from the first incident to plague the automated cab company, which has wheels on the ground in 11 U.S. markets and is ubiquitous in cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin and Miami.
In February, onlookers filmed the second that Waymo vehicles obtained trapped in flood waters in Los Angeles as heavy rains pummeled the town.
In 2025, meanwhile, Alphabet’s Waymo recalled more than 1,200 items in its fleet over a software program bug that had the potential to make the robotic autos more probably to crash into gates and other obstacles.
Perhaps the strangest glitch occurred earlier this Spring at San Jose Mineta International Airport, when a rogue robotaxi sped off with a Bay Area passenger’s baggage in its trunk — leaving him stranded without garments, work supplies before a flight to San Diego.
“So I have no luggage, no clothes to change, and all my work notes are in my luggage,” lamented the flyer, named Di Jin.
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