Overview
- A Waymo robotaxi drove into a flooded street in Atlanta on Wednesday, became stuck for about an hour, and was later recovered by crews.
- Waymo has suspended its full robotaxi service in Atlanta and San Antonio and paused highway and freeway trips in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Miami while it works on fixes.
- The company pushed a software update to roughly 3,800 vehicles last week meant to reduce flood encounters but said the update is not a final solution.
- Waymo’s system relies in part on National Weather Service alerts and other signals to avoid hazards, yet sudden flash floods can form faster than warnings reach vehicles and can outpace current sensing and decision rules.
- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is monitoring the incidents, and the outages threaten faster airport routes and could slow Waymo’s highway expansion as regulators and investigators review a broader pattern of safety problems.