Autonomous ride-hailing company Waymo is expected to resume service in San Antonio this week after suspending operations following two flood-related incidents involving its self-driving vehicles.
Operations were paused after an April 20 incident in which a Waymo vehicle was swept away by floodwaters and washed into Salado Creek. The incident came about two weeks after another Waymo vehicle became stranded in floodwaters near McCullough Avenue and Contour Drive. Both cars were unoccupied, and no one was injured in either incident.
The service pause has been the company’s longest in San Antonio to date as Waymo reviewed its flood monitoring procedures and safety protocols. Waymo previously said it would reevaluate how its vehicles respond to flood-prone areas and severe weather alerts before restarting service.
The back-to-back flood incidents also underscored how quickly changing weather conditions in San Antonio can challenge autonomous vehicle technology.
Waymo’s rollout in San Antonio has also raised broader questions about how self-driving vehicles interact with emergency responders during severe weather and other emergencies.
I mentioned the April 20 incident in this post; I had not been aware of the earlier one. That’s two such incidents in two months’ service time, since Waymo has only been in San Antonio since February, the same time as its arrival in Houston. I don’t know who’s trying to answer those questions that have been raised, since as of last week at least NHTSA had not yet opened an investigation into what happened and what Waymo planned to do about it. No word that I saw from TxDOT, either. I mean, I dunno, that seems like a thing we’d want some assurances on. Human drivers do drive into flooded street as well, but at least we know they’re incentivized not to. We should at least have some assurances about that here as well, and not just for San Antonio. KENS has more.