Waymo robotaxi flood recall triggers wider service pause
Tech Waymo robotaxi flood recall triggers wider service pause Waymos Waymo robotaxi flood recall has turned into a bigger service disruption than a one-off software patch was meant to prevent. After another vehicle drove into floodwater, the company paused robotaxi service in five US cities and widened restrictions elsewhere, exposing a safety problem that Waymo now says still has no permanent fix. The latest trigger came in Atlanta, where an unoccupied Waymo robotaxi got stuck on a flooded street in Midtown on Wednesday evening during severe storms. That happened less than two weeks after Waymo pushed a software patch across its fleet in an effort to address the same failure mode. By 21 May, the company had halted operations in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. At the same time, it suspended all freeway rides in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Miami while it works on a separate issue involving construction-zone performance. Why the Waymo robotaxi flood recall matters The immediate problem in the Waymo robotaxi flood recall is straightforward and troubling: a previous recall did not stop the behavior it was meant to address. Waymo paused service on 21 May after a software patch applied to its entire 3,791-vehicle fleet failed to prevent another