Waymo issued a software update to its fleet of nearly 4,000 vehicles to help them avoid flooded roads as part of a recall announced by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Tuesday.
But the company has not fully solved the problem of how its vehicles behave in these conditions. In documents released by NHTSA, the federal safety regulator says Waymo is still “developing the final solution to this recall.”
The issue appears to be that Waymo’s robotaxi slowed down, but didn’t stop, when it encountered flooded roads that it couldn’t cross, according to NHTSA. Robotaxis using Waymo’s fifth- and sixth-generation autonomous vehicle systems is affected.
The regulator said the recall affects 3,791 vehicles — giving us a more up-to-date understanding of how many vehicles Waymo has on the road in about a dozen U.S. cities.
Waymo has now issued multiple recalls for its self-driving cars. The company’s first recall was in February 2024, after it discovered that two robotaxis in Phoenix had separately crashed into the same tow vehicle. Since then, Waymo has issued recalls to fix low-speed crashes with parking gates and telephone poles, as well as to address illegal driving near school buses.
Waymo decided to issue the recall in late April after its robotic car struggled to cope with flooding in central Texas. in one incident, it was an empty robotaxi drifted to San Antonio. The company has also ceased operations in the city.
The initial update sent to its fleet places “restrictions at times and in locations where there is an increased risk of encountering a flooded roadway at higher speeds,” according to NHTSA.
“We have identified an area for improvement regarding uncrossed flooded lanes specifically for higher speed roads and have decided to file a voluntary software recall with NHTSA regarding this scenario,” Waymo said in a statement. “We are working to implement additional software safeguards and have put in place mitigation measures, including improving our extreme weather during periods of heavy rainfall, limiting access to areas where flash flooding may occur.”
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