(Credit: The Global Guy/Shutterstock)
Waymo has recalled 3,791 of its robotaxis after one of them drove through a flood. There was no one in the car, but it was swept away and recovered days later, Electrek reports.
According to Waymo’s filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), an AV approached “an untraversable flooded section of a roadway with a 40 mph speed limit” in San Antonio on April 20 and moved forward at a reduced speed instead of stopping. This caused the car to get pulled into Salado Creek, where it was later recovered.
Immediately after the incident, Waymo restricted its cars' access in areas with an "elevated risk of encountering a flooded, higher-speed roadway.” It decided to issue a recall after Waymo’s Safety Board reviewed details about what happened, and will update its 5th and 6th Generation Automated Driving Systems (ADS) with an over-the-air update.
Waymo began public rides in San Antonio in February, but services have remained suspended since April 20; they're expected to resume this week. A similar mishap occurred in the city two weeks earlier when a Waymo got stuck in floodwaters. No one was in the car then, either.
Waymo is currently operational in six US cities and completes around 500,000 paid rides per week. In the past 12 months, though, it has issued several recalls. In December, it issued a recall after its cars failed to stop for school buses. Before that, a recall was issued in May to stop its vehicles from crashing into barriers.