SAN FRANCISCO, June 24 (San Francisco News Online) — Waymo has recalled 3,871 driverless vehicles nationwide after federal safety regulators said a software flaw could send some robotaxis into closed freeway construction zones, prompting the company to curb freeway service while it develops a fix.
The voluntary recall covers vehicles equipped with Waymo’s 5th Generation Automated Driving System, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. NHTSA said driving through a closed construction zone increases the risk of a crash.
Waymo said the remedy is under development and that, in the meantime, it has modified the scope of vehicle operations to restrict freeway driving. The company said it will update the automated driving software free of charge so the vehicles can better detect construction zones and avoid entering them.
The recall is listed as Campaign Number 26E035000 in the federal filing. Waymo said in a statement quoted by CNBC that it had identified “an area of improvement regarding performance near freeway construction sites.”
Waymo also said it had voluntarily limited freeway operations in May while it made improvements and notified state and federal regulators. In that same statement, the company said, “We continue to safely serve passengers on surface streets across all the cities in which we operate.”
The federal filing reviewed incidents in Phoenix and in the San Francisco Bay Area before Waymo filed the recall. In one Bay Area incident on May 18, seven Waymo vehicles entered active freeway construction lanes by driving between cones, according to the filing.
The filing also reviewed one incident on April 11 in Phoenix and five incidents on April 19 there, where vehicles drove past ramp closure signs into pre-planned freeway construction zones, Fox News reported from the recall report.
Waymo said no collisions or injuries were reported in the incidents it reviewed. The company did not say the problem had led to any crash before the recall filing.
The recall is national in scope and affects vehicles operated by Alphabet-owned Waymo in the United States. The company’s filing to NHTSA is dated June 12, and the agency published the recall after the filing became available.
For San Francisco and the wider Bay Area, the recall is centered on freeway segments where construction control devices and lane closures can change the path available to the vehicle. Waymo’s interim restriction means riders in affected markets may see the service stay on surface streets rather than use freeway routes while the software update is completed.
Waymo said the recall is tied to a software update rather than a hardware replacement, and the company said the fix will be provided at no charge once it is finalized. The filing did not give a date for when the remedy will be ready.
