Overview
- Waymo announced a recall affecting roughly 3,871 vehicles to fix a software defect that can cause its self‑driving cars to enter highway lanes closed for construction.
- The recall follows at least 13 recorded incidents in April and May in Phoenix and the San Francisco Bay Area where vehicles failed to recognize closed ramps or drove between cones into active work zones.
- Waymo temporarily limited highway driving in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Miami while engineers develop and deploy software updates to prevent entries into closed construction areas.
- Reporting differs on whether the action was ordered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or filed voluntarily with the agency, and federal probes are continuing into other recent incidents including a January case in Santa Monica where a robotaxi struck a child.
- The move comes as Waymo operates millions of paid rides per month and expands tests overseas, a scale that increases pressure to resolve perception and decision‑making gaps and that could influence regulator scrutiny and public trust.