Waymo recalls robotaxis after vehicle swept away in San Antonio flood – San Antonio Express-News
North Interstate 35 and Seguin Road is closed due to flooding after heavy rainfall on May 1. The Waymo that was swept away on April 20 was found downstream from the crossing that’s known to flood.
Waymo is recalling its U.S. fleet of robotaxis after one of the autonomous vehicles was swept away when it drove into floodwaters in San Antonio.
The voluntary software recall stems from an incident during severe weather April 20, when a Waymo vehicle “encountered an untraversible flooded section of a roadway,” the company told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Though the vehicle detected the flooded road, it continued into floodwaters at reduced speed.
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“We are working to implement additional software safeguards and have put mitigations in place, including refining our extreme weather operations during periods of intense rain, limiting access to areas where flash flooding might occur,” Waymo said in a statement.
The vehicle swept away was unoccupied and there were no injuries, but the incident prompted Waymo to review similar scenarios and issue an interim update to its self-driving software. It also suspended operations in San Antonio, a city prone to flooding and where the April 20 incident was the second recent local instance of a Waymo vehicle struggling with flooding.
NHTSA said Waymo also has temporarily narrowed its operating scope to increase weather-related restrictions and updated its service-area maps while it works on a permanent remedy.
A Waymo autonomous vehicle goes through standing water on Metro Center Drive after a brief, intense rainstorm April 30 in Austin.
Outside San Antonio, passengers should see little impact except during severe weather.
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The company said Tuesday it had resumed autonomous operations in San Antonio after its longest-ever shutdown but is still not serving riders.
The recall affects 3,791 vehicles equipped with the Alphabet Inc.-owned company’s fifth- and sixth-generation automated-driving system, according to documents posted to the NHTSA website. Waymo says its autonomous fleet has about 3,800 vehicles.
The April 20 incident occurred when a robotaxi was overtaken by Salado Creek floodwaters. Crews recovered the vehicle four days later along the Greenway Trail system near Pletz County Park. Neither Waymo nor city officials have said where the car was swept into the creek. It was found downstream from several low water crossings and bridges, including the Interstate 35 frontage at Seguin Road, which is known to flood.
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It was the second San Antonio incident involving a Waymo and flooding in a two-week period. On April 4, another unoccupied Waymo had to be pulled from high water at McCullough Avenue and Contour Drive.
High water can be seen across the underpass a Salado Creek and Interstate 35 on May 1.
Now at three weeks, the length of the service shutdown in San Antonio has eclipsed the company’s previous interruptions for San Francisco power outages, Phoenix flash floods and Los Angeles protests.
The fast-growing company has faced scrutiny over a variety of issues with its vehicles.
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In January, NHTSA opened an investigation after a Waymo vehicle struck a child near an elementary school in California, causing minor injuries.
In March, the National Transportation Safety Board issued a preliminary report on its investigation into multiple instances of Waymo vehicles passing stopped Austin Independent School District buses in violation of state law. It found that on at least one occasion, a human remote assistance agent directed the robotaxi to pass a bus while students were loading.
The Google spinoff began limited service in February in San Antonio, with dozens of its Waymo Driver system-equipped Jaguar I-Pace vehicles covering a 60-square-mile service area. It began Austin service in March 2025 and now operates about 250 vehicles in a 140-square-mile service area.
On March 31, San Antonio International Airport became the first airport in the state to get the service. It’s being tested at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport but there is no timetable to begin service there.
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Beyond San Antonio and Austin, Waymo operates in nine other U.S. cities including Dallas and Houston. The others are Atlanta; Los Angeles; Miami; Nashville, Tenn.; Orlando, Fla.; Phoenix; and San Francisco.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This report has been updated to correct which school district had stopped buses passed by Waymos.
