Waymo suspended robotaxi service in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio after a software patch pushed to its fleet failed to stop another vehicle from entering standing water. An unoccupied robotaxi in Midtown Atlanta became stuck on a flooded street during severe storms, matching the failure mode that led to earlier recalls and shutdowns. Waymo also suspended all freeway rides in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Miami while improving performance in construction zones. The issue is described as architectural: the decision system can slow and then drive into standing water on higher speed roadways because it lacks a hard-stop condition for water in its path. A San Antonio incident involved a 40 mph roadway where the vehicle detected water, reduced speed, and still drove into it, leading to being swept into a creek. Waymo issued a voluntary recall and an interim software update with operational restrictions during elevated flood risk, but it did not prevent the later incident. Waymo has indicated it does not yet have a permanent fix.
"Waymo suspended robotaxi service across five US cities on 21 May after a software patch it pushed to its entire 3,791-vehicle fleet less than two weeks earlier failed to prevent another autonomous vehicle from driving into standing water. An unoccupied Waymo robotaxi got stuck on a flooded street in Midtown Atlanta on Wednesday evening during severe storms, roughly the same failure mode that triggered a recall on 8 May and a service shutdown in San Antonio a month before that."
"The underlying problem is architectural, not cosmetic. According to a letter posted on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's website, the software flaw could allow vehicles " to slow and then drive into standing water on higher speed roadways. " In the San Antonio incident on 20 April, an empty Waymo robotaxi encountered a flooded section of a road with a 40 mph speed limit, detected the water, reduced speed, and then drove into it anyway, because its decision system had no hard-stop condition for water in its path."
"Waymo issued a voluntary recall of 3,791 robotaxis using its fifth and sixth-generation automated driving systems and shipped an interim software update that placed restrictions on operations during elevated flood risk. That update was not enough to prevent the Atlanta incident. Waymo has admitted it still has no permanent fix. When it filed the recall, the company acknowledged that th"
Read at TNW | Cars
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