Waymo Recalls Thousands of Robotaxis Because They Keep Crashing Through Freeway Construction Zones (No, Seriously)

Alphabet’s self-driving car division, Waymo, just issued a voluntary recall for 3,871 of its autonomous vehicles.

Why? Because the robotaxis apparently have a burning desire to drive straight into active freeway construction zones, completely ignoring the giant orange cones yelling “do not enter”.

According to filings with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the company’s fifth-generation automated driving system has been involved in 13 known incidents where the cars decided to full-send their way into closed construction areas in Phoenix and San Francisco.

Driverless cars causing problems? Who’d have guessed…

It turns out Waymo’s software was suffering from a bit of a performance issue around freeway construction zones. Instead of realizing that heavy machinery and concrete barriers mean “stop,” the AI was busy prioritizing other hazards. Talk about having your priorities completely backward.

“Driving through a closed construction zone increases the risk of a crash.”

You don’t say, NHTSA. Thanks for clearing that up for us.

Won’t someone think of the shareholders?

This is Waymo’s second voluntary recall in a little over a month, following an incident in May where the robotaxis decided to test out their swimming skills by driving straight into flooded zones and standing water. And let’s not forget the time they failed to yield to school buses in Texas, or when a power outage in San Francisco caused them to completely freeze up, creating absolute gridlock.

While Waymo works on a software patch to teach its AI basic road-sign etiquette, the company has restricted all its robotaxis from driving on freeways. If you were hoping to cruise down the highway with no hands in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, or Miami, you’re back to the boring old surface streets for now.

Experts say that until this freeway patch is actually deployed and validated, Waymo’s plans for rapid expansion are fundamentally constrained. So, if you’re holding Alphabet stock, you might want to keep an eye on how fast these engineers can code.

Do you think autonomous vehicles will ever truly master city driving, or are we stuck with human road rage forever? Either way, we’re in trouble.

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