Waymo, the self-driving taxi service under Google’s parent company, has decided to recall 1,212 of its vehicles operating in cities like San Francisco, Phoenix, and Austin due to numerous incidents involving collisions with gates, chains, and other roadside obstacles.
This voluntary recall, detailed in a publication from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), involves vehicles using Waymo’s fifth-generation automated driving software. This comes after the federal government launched an investigation last year regarding a series of slow-speed crashes with barriers. Interestingly, this recall also aligns with an NHTSA letter to Tesla, expressing concerns about how Robotaxis handle rare road hazards.
“Waymo provides over 250,000 paid rides weekly in some of the toughest driving conditions in the U.S.,” the company stated, mentioning their intention to collaborate with the NHTSA. They emphasized their commitment to high safety standards, citing a significant reduction in injuries during tens of millions of miles driven autonomously, which they believe contributes to safer roads.
The NHTSA’s inquiry began after reports of seven taxis hitting road barriers between December 2022 and April 2024. Waymo later revealed nine additional incidents, raising the total to 16. Some reports indicated that certain encounters involved objects that, ideally, a capable driver should be able to avoid. The investigation is still ongoing.
According to the recall report, Waymo informed regulators that they implemented software patches across the fleet in November and completed the updates by December, which they claim has greatly reduced the chances of the vehicles colliding with gate-like features.
The recall specifically targets vehicles running older software, while Waymo noted that its sixth-generation software is currently in use by over 1,500 of their commercial taxis, and the service expansion remains on track.
Previously, Waymo has issued two software-related recalls, one involving 444 vehicles in February 2024 due to an issue with a tow truck facing the wrong direction, in addition to government reviews that have impacted other companies like General Motors, whose taxi crashed into utility poles, as well as rival services like Amazon’s Zoox.
