Waymo has extended service suspensions to four cities after its autonomous vehicles repeatedly encountered difficulties navigating heavy rain and flooded roadways, an issue that led to a software recall earlier this month.
TechCrunch reports that Google’s self-driving car company halted operations in Atlanta, San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston as its robotaxis have demonstrated continued problems handling severe weather conditions and flooding. The expansion of service pauses comes after a Waymo vehicle was observed driving through a flooded Atlanta street on Wednesday before becoming stuck for approximately an hour, according to local media reports.
The company confirmed that the stranded vehicle was eventually recovered and removed from the scene. In response to the incident, Waymo paused service in Atlanta, mirroring the action it had already taken in San Antonio, Texas, while the company works to develop a comprehensive solution to the flooding problem.
“Safety is Waymo’s top priority, both for our riders and everyone we share the road with. During a period of intense rain yesterday in Atlanta, an unoccupied Waymo vehicle encountered a flooded road and stopped,” the company stated.
The service suspensions in Dallas and Houston were implemented due to severe weather affecting Texas last week, with Waymo confirming that operations in both cities were paused as a precautionary measure in anticipation of forecasted severe weather conditions.
The Atlanta incident is particularly significant because it occurred despite safety measures Waymo implemented following a software recall issued earlier this month. At the time of that recall, the company acknowledged it had not yet completed development of a final remedy for avoiding flooded areas. Instead, Waymo deployed a software update to its fleet that imposed restrictions on operations in times and locations where there was an elevated risk of encountering flooded, high-speed roadways, according to documentation released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
This is not the first instance where Waymo has faced challenges in quickly resolving problematic behavior exhibited by its autonomous fleet. Last year, after people began noticing Waymo robotaxis illegally passing stopped school buses, the company deployed what was intended to be a corrective fix. However, the fleet continued to execute illegal maneuvers around school buses even after the update was implemented.
Breitbart News previously reported that dozens of Waymo cars have been found circling a quiet Atlanta neighborhood for hours at a time:
According to resident accounts, the autonomous vehicles first appeared in the area approximately two months ago, but the frequency of visits increased dramatically over the past two weeks. Neighbors report that as many as 50 cars have passed through or looped around the cul-de-sac during peak periods, with particularly heavy traffic occurring during early morning hours between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m. The constant stream of slow-moving vehicles has created what residents describe as disruptive traffic conditions on streets not designed to handle such volume.
Local families have expressed growing concerns about the safety implications of the repeated autonomous vehicle presence. Parents worry about potential hazards near school bus stops where children wait for transportation. The constant vehicle traffic also poses concerns for children playing outside and family pets in the residential area. The situation has prompted residents to take action, with some placing bright green inflatable figures and other barriers in the roadway in an attempt to deter the vehicles from entering the cul-de-sac. These makeshift obstacles proved partially effective, with at least eight vehicles becoming temporarily stuck while attempting to navigate around the barriers and turn around.
Read more at TechCrunch here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.