Waymo, the self-driving car company wey Google own, don announce say dem go temporarily stop dia robotaxi service for five cities for United States. Dis one come after some of dia vehicles enter flooded road and get stuck for water.
According to report, on 20 April 2026, one empty Waymo vehicle enter flooded road for San Antonio, Texas and water carry am go creek. Another similar incident happen for Atlanta, Georgia, where one unoccupied robotaxi get trapped for flood water.
Waymo spokesperson tell Reuters say dem expand di temporary pause to five cities – four for Texas and Atlanta – ‘out of abundance of caution.’ Di company also suspend service for US freeways as dem dey work to improve how dia cars perform for construction zones.
Waymo, wey dey plan to start robotaxi service for London later dis year, tell BBC say safety na dia ‘highest priority.’ Dem say, ‘We continue to closely monitor forecasts, alerts, and live weather conditions, and we will resume serving riders soon.’
Di software problem wey cause dis wahala fit make vehicles ‘slow and then drive into standing water on higher speed roadways.’ Dis one come highlight for letter wey National Highway Traffic Safety Administration post for dia website earlier dis month.
For response, Waymo issue voluntary recall of nearly 3,800 robotaxis wey use dia fifth and sixth-generation automated driving systems. Di company say dem dey work on ‘additional software safeguards.’
On Wednesday, one unoccupied Waymo robotaxi get trapped for flood water for Atlanta road. Meanwhile, di company don temporarily pull dia service for freeways for San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Miami. Dem say dem dey evaluate dia cars’ performance for construction zones and e expect to resume those routes soon.
Waymo, wey be subsidiary of Alphabet, Google parent company, say dem dey provide more than 500,000 trips per week across multiple US cities including San Francisco, Austin and Miami.
Over di past year, several incidents with driverless cars don raise concerns about dia safety. For December 2025, large power outage for San Francisco cause Waymo taxis to stop working around di city, wey create significant disruption. And for April, mass Apollo Go robotaxi outage for Chinese city of Wuhan cause at least hundred self-driving cars to stop mid-traffic.
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