Waymo recalls more than 1,200 autonomous vehicles in the US

Waymo has recalled 1,212 self-driving vehicles in the US following minor collisions with fixed roadside objects such as gates and chains. That is the majority of the company's fleet. What is strange - the issue seems to have already been fixed.

Alphabet subsidiary Waymo has recalled 1,212 autonomous vehicles in the US due to software limitations that caused minor collisions with roadside objects such as chains, gates, and utility poles. The affected vehicles are equipped with Waymo’s fifth-generation Driver system and the incidents occurred between 2022 and late 2024. Waymo has since updated the vehicle’s software, saying all issues were fixed by the end of December 2024. So five months before the recall was issued.

The update enhances how the Waymo Driver detects and interprets low-profile and semi-obstructed roadside features. However, it seems the sixth-generation version of the automated driving system has not been implemented yet.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation into Waymo’s automated driving performance in May 2024. The agency cited incidents where vehicles collided with clearly visible stationary objects that a competent human driver would be expected to avoid. Waymo has acknowledged 16 such events. No injuries were reported.

Several media outlets quoted Waymo as saying: “Waymo provides more than 250,000 paid trips every week in some of the most challenging driving environments in the U.S. We hold ourselves to a high safety standard, and our record of reducing injuries over tens of millions of fully autonomous miles driven shows our technology is making roads safer. NHTSA plays a vital role in road safety, and we will continue to work collaboratively with the agency as part of our mission to be the world’s most trusted driver.”

This marks the third recall issued by Waymo within a year. In February 2024, 444 vehicles were recalled due to errors in predicting the movement of towed vehicles, and in June, a further 670 vehicles were recalled after one struck a wooden pole in Phoenix.

Waymo currently operates over 1,500 autonomous vehicles across San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin, delivering more than 250,000 fully autonomous paid rides weekly. Expansion plans include new deployments in Atlanta, Miami and Washington, D.C.

insideevs.com, reuters.com