Atlanta flash flooding on Wednesday show say even robot fit get problem with water. Some Waymo self-driving taxis wey don become common for city street, dem get stranded for flooded road. One of the cars even carry journalist from Atlanta Journal-Constitution inside am.
Waymo don announce say dem dey pause operation for five US cities, including Atlanta and four cities for Texas. Dis one na because of software issue wey make some of the cars enter flooded road and get stuck. According to BBC, Waymo recently recall almost 3,800 robotaxis after one incident for San Antonio, Texas, on April 20, when empty Waymo vehicle enter flooded road and water carry am go creek.
For Atlanta, one unoccupied Waymo robotaxi get trapped for flood water on Wednesday. Waymo spokesperson tell Reuters say dem expand temporary pause to five cities out of abundance of caution. Dem also suspend service for US freeways as dem dey work to improve car performance for construction zones.
Waymo wey be subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet, dey provide more than 500,000 trips per week across multiple US cities including San Francisco, Austin and Miami. But dis year, several incidents don raise concern about safety of driverless cars. For December 2025, large power outage for San Francisco make Waymo taxis stop work for whole city, causing serious disruption. And for April, mass Apollo Go robotaxi outage for Wuhan, China, make at least 100 self-driving cars stop for middle of traffic.
The software problem wey cause dis issue allow vehicles to slow and then drive into standing water on higher speed roadways. Dis one na according to letter wey National Highway Traffic Safety Administration post for dia website earlier dis month. Waymo issue voluntary recall of nearly 3,800 robotaxis wey use fifth and sixth-generation automated driving systems, and dem dey work on additional software safeguards.
Waymo also temporarily pull service for freeways for San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Miami, and dem dey evaluate car performance for construction zones. The company tell Reuters say dem expect to resume those routes soon. Waymo tell BBC say safety be dia highest priority, and dem go continue to monitor forecasts, alerts, and live weather conditions, and dem go resume serving riders soon.
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