Waymo recalls thousands of autonomous vehicles following safety incident
Fox Business • • business
Key Points:
- Waymo is recalling 3,791 autonomous vehicles equipped with its 5th and 6th generation Automated Driving Systems due to a defect that may prevent the vehicles from fully stopping when encountering flooded roads, posing a significant safety risk.
- The recall follows an incident on April 20 where an unoccupied Waymo vehicle failed to stop on a flooded high-speed road with a 40 mph speed limit, prompting federal regulators to classify the defect as having a 100% rate in the affected vehicles.
- Waymo implemented an interim software update and additional weather-related restrictions on April 20, 2026, and officially initiated the recall on April 24, 2026, covering vehicles manufactured between March 17, 2022, and April 20, 2026.
- Since Waymo owns the entire affected fleet, it was able to deploy the interim remedy immediately without traditional consumer notifications, aiming to mitigate risks quickly across its vehicles operating in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin.