Waymo Recalls 3,791 Self-driving Car Taxis Over Flooded-Road Risk
Waymo recalled 3,791 self-driving car taxis on April 30 after a software defect let some vehicles slow and then drive into standing water on higher-speed roads. The move forces a software fix onto vehicles already operating in 10 major cities. For riders, the immediate change is a temporary software update while the full remedy is still being built.
Waymo’s 3,791-vehicle recall
The recall covers Waymo vehicles on the company’s fifth and sixth generation Automated Driving System. That is the hardware and software stack controlling the cars without a human driver at the wheel, so the fix reaches a large slice of the fleet rather than a single model or city.
Waymo said it filed the voluntary recall after severe weather in San Antonio. The company said one vehicle entered a flooded and impassable road there. That is the kind of edge case robotaxi systems have to handle in real traffic, not just in test routes.
San Antonio flood incident
Waymo said it increased weather-related constraints on its vehicles after the incident. It also said it is working on additional software safeguards. The company’s statement framed the problem this way: “We have identified an area of improvement regarding untraversable flooded lanes specific to higher-speed roadways, and have made the decision to file a voluntary software recall with NHTSA related to this scenario”.
NHTSA wrote in the recall report that “Entering a flooded roadway can cause a loss of vehicle control, increasing the risk of a crash or injury”. The agency said all affected Waymo vehicles received an interim software update to mitigate the issue. A full remedy remains under development, so the fleet is not yet on a final fix.
NHTSA and Waymo safeguards
Waymo said it provides over half a million trips every week in some of the most challenging driving environments across the U.S., and that safety is its primary priority. The company also says it has over 170 million fully autonomous miles driven in its data set and that it is 13 times safer than human drivers in crashes involving pedestrians.
Those figures sit alongside a history of safety-related recalls. Last year, Waymo recalled more than 1,200 autonomous vehicles after minor crashes involving obstacles in the road. The pattern leaves one practical question open for riders and regulators: when the full flooded-road remedy is ready, how much of the fleet will need another software push before the recall can be closed.
