Waymo has now suspended service in four cities as its robots battle heavy rain and flooded roads. prompted the company to recall last week.
One of Waymo’s robot taxis was spotted driving through a flooded street in Atlanta, Georgia on Wednesday, getting stuck for about an hour. to local news. Waymo told TechCrunch that the vehicle was located and removed from the scene. Waymo said it is suspending service in the city, as it has in San Antonio, Texas, while it finds a solution.
“Safety is Waymo’s top priority for both our drivers and everyone we share the road with. During heavy rain yesterday in Atlanta, an empty Waymo vehicle encountered a flooded road and came to a stop,” the company said.
Waymo also suspended service in Dallas and Houston this week due to severe weather in Texas he said Bloomberg News late Thursday.
Waymo admitted last week that it had not finished developing a “last resort” to prevent flooded areas when it issued the software recall. Instead, the company said it sent an update that places restrictions on its fleet “when and where there is a high risk of encountering a flooded, higher-speed roadway,” according to documents released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
But apparently even those precautions weren’t enough to stop Waymo’s robotaxi from entering a flooded intersection in Atlanta. Waymo told TechCrunch on Thursday that the storm dumped so much rain in Atlanta that flooding occurred before the National Weather Service issued a flood warning, watch or advisory. The company said the warnings are part of a larger set of alerts it uses to prepare cars for bad weather.
“NHTSA is aware of this incident, is in contact with Waymo, and will take appropriate action if necessary,” a spokesperson for the safety regulator told TechCrunch about the robotaxi that got stuck in Atlanta.
This isn’t the first time Waymo has had to quickly address problematic behavior with its robotaxi. When people started seeing Waymo robotaxis illegally passing stopped school buses last year, the company sent out a fix that was supposed to fix the problem — just for its fleet continues to make illegal maneuvers around school buses.
Waymo’s behavior around school buses is at the center of one of two active investigations into the company.
Both NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating the issue. Waymo has already prepared a number of documents for NHTSA, all of which have been made available to the public. On May 15, NHTSA issued a second document request to Waymo because the company’s initial response “requires (NHTSA) to receive additional data and information.”
Other NHTSA and NTSB investigations include the Jan. 23 incident involving a Waymo robot taxi. hit the kid Santa Monica, California. Waymo said the robot taxi braked at 6 mph before hitting the boy, who suffered minor injuries.
This story has been updated with more information about how Waymo uses National Weather Service alerts, and to include new service interruptions in Houston and Dallas.
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