Waymo recalls over 3,500 vehicles after robotaxi entered flooded Texas road, company says

Waymo is recalling up to 3,791 robotaxis because the Automated Driving System software could allow the cars to drive onto flooded roads, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

According to the NHTSA, on April 20, an unoccupied Waymo autonomous vehicle entered an untraversable flood section of a roadway with a 40 miles per hour speed limit at a reduced speed.

"On higher speed roadways, the Waymo AV may slow but not stop in response to detecting a potentially untraversable flooded lane," NHTSA recall documents read.

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Waymo's voluntary recall was prompted by severe weather in San Antonio that caused a road to flood and a robotaxi to enter an untraversable lane, sources told ABC News.

Further information from ABC News indicated that while the event involved an unoccupied vehicle, and there were no injuries, Waymo decided to review scenarios involving flooded roadways and identified an opportunity for improvement.

Waymo indicated that the incident happened on April 20 and the recall was filed on April 30. The company is still working on a fix. In the meantime, they have "modified the scope of vehicle operations to increase weather-related constraints and updated the vehicle maps," according to NHTSA.

A Waymo spokesperson provided a statement that read in part:

"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."

In February, Waymo deployed its self-driving cars in a limited area of Houston, mostly inside the city's 610 Loop.

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