Waymo’s autonomous taxis remain strangely drawn to floodwater

Waymo (Iv-olga / Shutterstock.com)

Somewhere inside the neural net is apparently a very determined salmon.

Waymo has reportedly suspended robotaxi operations in yet another city after one of its autonomous vehicles drove directly into floodwater and got stuck, continuing the fleet’s ongoing scientific inquiry into whether roads and rivers are, spiritually, the same thing.

First reported by TechCrunch, the company has paused its operations in Atlanta after one of its self-driving vehicles was seen driving through a heavily flooded street, where it eventually got stuck for around an hour. This comes after Waymo also temporarily suspended its San Antonio service last week and issued a voluntary recall for nearly 4,000 robotaxis. At the time, the company said it was preparing an OTA software patch that would fix an apparent inability to determine when an area is too flooded to drive through safely. This was in response to one of its unoccupied vehicles driving into and subsequently being swept away by a flood in the Texas city.

Another recent software patch was supposed to have placed restrictions on Waymo’s in-service autonomous vehicles approaching roads at high risk of flooding at a certain time, but this update clearly wasn’t effective enough to prevent the latest incident in Atlanta. Waymo told Engadget that a local storm had been so intense that flooding had occurred before the National Weather Service could issue a warning or alert, and that it was continuing to develop its software to improve performance in challenging conditions.

“Safety is Waymo’s top priority, both for our riders and everyone we share the road with,” a Waymo spokesperson told Engadget. “During a period of intense rain yesterday in Atlanta, an unoccupied Waymo vehicle encountered a flooded road and stopped. The vehicle has been recovered and removed from the scene.”

Engadget

The future of transportation continues to yearn for the sea.