Waymo halts Atlanta robotaxi service after vehicle drives into flood

Investing.com -- Waymo has suspended its robotaxi service in Atlanta after an unoccupied vehicle drove into a flooded road on Wednesday. The autonomous vehicle unit of Alphabet Inc. has since recovered and removed the car from the scene, a company spokesperson said.

The Atlanta suspension marks the second city where Waymo has paused operations following severe weather incidents. The company's San Antonio service has been on hold since late April, when an unoccupied vehicle entered a flooded lane and was swept into a creek.

Last week, Waymo recalled 3,791 vehicles to address a software issue that could cause robotaxis to continue driving without stopping when detecting a potentially untraversable flooded lane.

The vehicle in Atlanta encountered the flooded roadway before any National Weather Service alerts about potential flash flooding were issued. Waymo monitors these alerts to guide its operational plans during flood conditions.

Waymo said it has refined its extreme weather operations following the San Antonio incident. The company is working on additional software updates to improve performance around flooded roadways.

The company will monitor weather and road conditions to determine when it is safe to resume robotaxi service in Atlanta, which is offered through the Uber app via a partnership with the ridehailing company.

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