Waymo has issued a software update to nearly 4,000 robotaxis following a recall announced Tuesday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over how the vehicles respond to flooded roads. The recall affects 3,791 vehicles operating with Waymo’s fifth- and sixth-generation autonomous driving systems across roughly a dozen cities in the United States.
According to documents released by NHTSA, the issue involves Waymo robotaxis slowing down, but not fully stopping, when they encounter flooded roads that they cannot safely cross.
The regulator stated that Waymo is still developing a final fix for the issue. NHTSA said the company has not yet completed the full remedy tied to the recall.
Flooding Incidents Triggered Recall
Waymo decided to issue the recall in late April after several robotaxis encountered difficulties navigating flooding conditions in central Texas. In one reported incident, an empty Waymo robotaxi was swept away by floodwaters in San Antonio.
The company has since paused operations in the city.
According to NHTSA, the initial software update introduced restrictions for vehicles operating “at times and in locations where there is an elevated risk of encountering a flooded, higher-speed roadway.”
Waymo said the update was intended to reduce the likelihood of vehicles entering areas affected by flash flooding or severe rainfall.
“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,” Waymo said in a statement.
The company added: “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.”
Series Of Software Recalls
The latest action adds to a growing number of recalls involving Waymo’s autonomous vehicles.
The company issued its first recall in February 2024 after discovering that two robotaxis operating in Phoenix had separately collided with the same towed vehicle.
Since then, Waymo has issued additional recalls to address low-speed crashes involving parking gates and telephone poles, along with software issues connected to illegal driving behavior near school buses.
The latest NHTSA filing also provides one of the clearest public figures so far regarding the size of Waymo’s active robotaxi fleet, showing that nearly 4,000 autonomous vehicles are currently operating on public roads.
Featured image credits: Wikimedia Commons
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