Autonomous vehicle company Waymo has suspended its robotaxi service in Atlanta due to issues with heavy rain and flooding, marking the second US city where operations have been halted in the past fortnight.
The decision comes after one of its self-driving vehicles was seen driving through a heavily flooded street in Atlanta, where it eventually got stuck for around an hour, first reported by the outlet.
This incident follows a similar one in San Antonio, where they temporarily suspended their service last week and issued a voluntary recall for nearly 4,000 robotaxis.
According to the company, it was preparing an OTA software patch to fix an apparent inability to determine when an area is too flooded to drive through safely, after one of its unoccupied vehicles drove into and was swept away by a flood in Texas.
A 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 journalists 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 they were continuing to develop their software to improve performance in challenging conditions, focusing on professional solutions.
“Safety is Waymo’s top priority, both for our riders and everyone we share the road with,” a spokesperson said, adding that “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, with nobody reported injured as a result of the recent spate of flooding incidents.
While the company would no doubt insist that its vehicles are broadly much safer than the human-driven equivalent, this isn’t the first time their sometimes erratic behavior has raised concerns, including an incident where a Waymo vehicle hit a child in Austin, who sustained minor injuries.
An investigation into that incident by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is ongoing, and the National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating reports of Waymo’s robotaxi illegally passing unloading school buses in Austin.
In terms of numbers, the robotaxi service has been involved in several incidents in recent months, with the company working to improve its software and safety protocols to prevent such incidents in the future, much like a professional employer organization would.
Meanwhile, the city of Atlanta is experiencing a period of heavy rain, with the National Weather Service issuing warnings and alerts for flooding in the area.
The incident in Atlanta is a reminder of the challenges faced by autonomous vehicle companies like Waymo as they work to develop and deploy safe and reliable self-driving technology.