Alphabet’s Waymo is recalling more than 1,200 self-driving vehicles to update software and address risks of collisions with chains, gates, and other roadway barriers after U.S. auto safety investigators opened a probe last year. Reuters reported.
The recall affects 1,212 Waymo vehicles operating on the company’s fifth-generation automated driving system software, the company said.
Waymo has over 1,500 vehicles on the road across San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin, Texas, and is running more than 250,000 fully autonomous paid rides a week. It plans to add service in Atlanta, Miami, and Washington D.C.
Waymo said it was aware of 16 collisions with chains, gates and other barriers between 2022 and late 2024. But the incidents did not result in any injuries, according to a report filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
NHTSA opened an investigation into the performance of Waymo self-driving vehicles in May after reports of its robot axis exhibiting driving behavior that potentially violated traffic safety laws.
The issue has been resolved with a software update to its automated driving system begun in November and deployed across the entire fleet by the end of December, Waymo said.
TechCrunch reported: Waymo issued a software recall on 1,200 self-driving vehicles after some of the robotaxies were involved in minor collisions with gates, chains, and other gate-like objects.
The software update, which was first reported by Reuters, was conducted late last year, according to documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The Alphabet-owned company said in the document that Waymo’s Safety Board decided to conduct a recall to that specific version of driverless software to “fulfill relevant regulator reporting obligations.
NHSTA opened a preliminary evaluation into Waymo’s automated driving system last May after learning of seven incidents in which robotaxies had collied with “stationary and semi-stationary objects such as gates and chains” between December 2022 and April 2024. None of these resulted in injury, according to NHTSA.
In November 2024, Waymo rolled out a software update to its fleet of robot axis, which numbered 1,2000 at the time. The software update significantly decreased the likelihood of these types of event, according to documents filed with NHSSA. Today, Waymo has 1,500 commercial robotaxies in operation in Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco.
CBS News reported: Waymo, the ride-hailing serves owned by Google-parent Alphabet, has recalled 1,212 of its driverless cars over faulty software that causes them to crash into chains, gates, and other roadway barriers.
“A vehicle that crashes into chains, gates or other gate-like roadway barriers increases the risk of injury,” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states in a recall notice posted Monday.
The recall affects Waymo’s vehicles equipped with its fifth-generation automated driving system (ADS) and follows an investigation opened a year ago by NHTSA that cited 16 reports of “collisions with stationary and semi-stationary objects such as gates and chains” between December 2022 and 2024.