Waymo is recalling its autonomous driving software due to an issue that allowed its vehicles to drive on flooded roads. The recall affects 3,791 vehicles equipped with Waymo’s fifth and sixth generation systems. According to a filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an unoccupied Waymo robotaxi encountered a flooded road with a 40 mph speed limit and proceeded at a reduced speed despite detecting the flood. Waymo is currently working on a solution and has updated its vehicles to increase weather-related constraints and update the vehicles’ maps.
Although no injuries occurred, the incident underscores the challenges driverless cars face with changing road conditions due to extreme weather. Initially, Waymo focused on cities with warmer, drier climates like Phoenix, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Austin. As it plans to expand to East Coast cities such as Boston, New York City, and Washington, DC, handling adverse weather will be essential.
This marks the first recall for Waymo’s sixth generation system, introduced earlier this year for high volume production. Waymo’s current fleet of Jaguar I-Pace vehicles uses the company’s fifth generation technology, launched in March 2020, which has been recalled five times previously, including for issues like passing stopped school buses and crashing into stationary objects.
The sixth generation system is engineered to operate smoothly across multiple vehicle types, starting with the Zeekr RT minivan (rebranded as Ojai) and later the Hyundai Ioniq 5. Waymo is also in discussions with other automakers, including Toyota, regarding future models.