Oops.
Waymo has recalled its fleet of nearly 4,000 robotaxis to restrict them from driving on highways while it figures out how to make the vehicles behave around construction zones.
The recall comes after Waymo identified at least 13 instances of its robotaxis driving into highway sections that were closed for construction. Six of these happened in Phoenix, Arizona, in April, and seven occurred in San Francisco, California, in May.
Waymo pulled its robotaxis from all highways on May 19, and a fix for the problem is “currently under development,” according to filings with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The company is not pulling vehicles off the road and is still operating on surface streets, though it has periodically paused service during severe weather that could lead to flooding.
“We identified an area of improvement regarding performance around freeway construction zones,” Waymo said in a statement to TechCrunch. “We voluntarily restricted freeway operations last month while making improvements, proactively notified state and federal regulators, and decided to file a voluntary software recall with NHTSA.”
This is the sixth recall Waymo has issued for its robotaxis. In May, the company recalled its robotaxis after they drove into flooded roads, and in December, it issued one to address its vehicles’ illegal behavior around school buses. Waymo has previously issued recalls to fix low-speed collisions with chains and gates and telephone poles, and one to solve a problem regarding towed trucks.
The company’s driving software is currently under investigation by the NHTSA and National Transportation Safety Board regarding its behavior around school buses after one of its robotaxis struck a child near a school in January.
Waymos have only been using the highway since last November – they were city-streets-only before then – so I suppose some bumps in the road were to be expected. It’s good that they caught it, and this time they don’t have to take them entirely out of service. I still kind of feel like despite the amount of service time so far, these things are not yet fully baked. I guess they do have to be tested in the real world, but it does annoy me to be even tangentially a part of that beta period. Until the next bug, I suppose. CBS News and the Chron have more.