Waymo voluntarily recalled over 3,700 self-driving cars for software updates after a vehicle entered a flooded road in San Antonio.
SAN ANTONIO — When a self-driving Waymo vehicle inadvertently entered a flooded roadway during a period of heavy San Antonio rain last month, the company paused local services as it evaluated the incident.
That review ended up having nationwide effects across the California company’s entire U.S. fleet. The company decided to voluntarily recall its 3,791 cars to update their software in the aftermath of the San Antonio incident on April 20.
According to materials submitted by Waymo to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the company found that “on higher-speed roadways, the Waymo AV (autonomous vehicle) may slow but not stop in response to detecting a potentially untraversable flooded lane.” The company went on to say that defect “can result in loss of vehicle control.”
Waymo told the NHTSA that it decided to recall its vehicles for the software fixes on April 24. Company representatives said they responded by removing “operating conditions” that exacerbated the possibility for autonomous vehicles to come across a “flooded, higher-speed roadway.”
“We are working to implement additional software safeguards and have put mitigations in place, including refining our extreme weather operations during periods of intense rain, limiting access to areas where flash flooding might occur,” a Waymo spokesperson said.
In the meantime, Waymo has resumed San Antonio operations as of Tuesday. The company currently has AVs in 11 cities, including San Antonio, Dallas, Houston and Austin.