Waymo Recalls Thousands of Robotaxis After One Took a Wrong Turn Into a Creek

BBC, USA Today, CNBC, the Hill contributed to this report.

Waymo is pulling thousands of its self-driving cars off the road in the US after a software bug raised a very awkward question: what happens when a robotaxi spots floodwater and keeps going anyway?

The company said it is voluntarily recalling nearly 3,800 vehicles using its fifth- and sixth-generation driverless systems after an incident in San Antonio on April 20, when an empty Waymo entered a flooded road and ended up swept into a creek. No passengers were inside. Still not exactly the kind of headline a robotaxi company wants.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the issue mainly affects Waymos on higher-speed roads, where the cars could slow down when they detect flooded lanes but not stop completely. That is the bug Waymo says it is fixing.

Waymo says safety is its top priority and that it has already rolled out some mitigations, including tighter limits on where the vehicles can operate during heavy rain and flash-flood conditions. It is also working on more software safeguards.

The company’s service in San Antonio is still paused for now, though Waymo says it plans to restart public rides once the fix is in place.

The recall hits a fleet that has grown fast. Waymo says it now gives more than 500,000 rides a week across several US cities, including San Francisco, Austin and Miami. That expansion has come with more visibility and, unsurprisingly, more scrutiny.

This is not the first time the company has run into trouble when the weather turns ugly. Waymo taxis were once disrupted by a San Francisco power outage, and autonomous-vehicle companies in general have had a rough time handling extreme conditions, from storms to floods to gridlock-causing failures.

Researchers and policy experts say the problem is not unique to Waymo. Self-driving systems can work well in a lot of conditions, but the edge cases are where the cracks show. Heavy rain, flash flooding, poor visibility and debris all make life harder for the sensors and software that guide these vehicles.

For now, Waymo says it has identified the flaw, narrowed where the cars can operate, and started pushing fixes. The company is betting that a software update is enough to keep a flooded street from becoming a headline again.