Waymo service takes a multicity rain check

Waymo and its self-driving cars are used to making waves, but this isn’t what they had in mind. After several incidents of its robotaxis driving into floodwaters, the company announced on Thursday that it’s temporarily halting its service in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, and Houston due to inclement weather.

So, what happened? During a bout of heavy rain in Atlanta on Wednesday, an empty Waymo car Leeroy Jenkins’d into a flooded street and got stuck. Elsewhere in the city, a different Waymo vehicle with a journalist inside also repeatedly tried its hand at self-boating.

There were precipitating events: Waymo had already halted service in San Antonio last month over a similar incident. And last week, the company issued a recall on thousands of its vehicles to perform a software update aimed at solving the problem. According to Waymo:

• The update—meant to be a temporary fix—instructed vehicles not to drive when there’s an elevated risk of flooding.
• But that didn’t work in Atlanta, because the flooding started before emergency alerts were sent out.

Waymo said it’s working on additional software changes and will monitor conditions to decide when it can safely lift the service suspensions.

Big picture: Waymo says data proves its vehicles are safer drivers than humans when it comes to avoiding collisions that result in injuries. But its robotaxis are under federal investigation for failing to stop for school buses and for striking a child in California, causing minor injuries, the company told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.—BC