Waymo halted its robotaxi service in Atlanta due to problems caused by heavy rain and flooding. A self-driving vehicle was seen driving through a heavily flooded street and became stuck for about an hour. The Atlanta pause follows a temporary suspension in San Antonio and a voluntary recall affecting nearly 4,000 robotaxis. Waymo previously planned an over-the-air software patch to address an apparent inability to determine when an area is too flooded to drive through safely. A later patch intended to restrict vehicles approaching high-risk flood roads at certain times did not prevent the Atlanta incident. Waymo stated that flooding occurred before National Weather Service warnings were issued and that it continues developing software for challenging conditions. No injuries were reported, and the vehicle was recovered and removed.
"Waymo has halted its robotaxi service in a second US city in the past fortnight due to issues with heavy rain and flooding. 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.""
Read at Engadget
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