Waymo, the autonomous vehicle company owned by Alphabet, has issued a voluntary recall of 3,871 robotaxis in the United States after detecting a software defect that caused the vehicles to enter active highway construction zones and continue driving at full speed. The fault, reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on 12 June, affects vehicles equipped with the fifth-generation autonomous driving system (ADS) and has manifested in at least 13 documented incidents in the metropolitan areas of Phoenix (Arizona) and San Francisco (California). The company has temporarily suspended all highway operations while it deploys an over-the-air (OTA) software update to fix the problem.
According to the recall report filed by Waymo, the root of the fault lies in a priority behaviour of the software: the navigation algorithms, when faced with multiple hazards on the road, prioritised avoiding other risks (vehicles, pedestrians, obstacles) and, in that process, failed to correctly recognise construction zones delimited by lane-closure signs and cones. In one of the most serious incidents, which occurred on 18 May on Highway 101 in San Francisco, seven robotaxis entered lanes with active works. A passenger later described how the vehicle ignored the detour signs and continued at highway speed among workers and machinery, forcing the company to restrict highway driving the following day. Waymo’s safety committee decided on the voluntary recall on 8 June.
This is not Waymo’s first recall in 2026: in May it had already recalled several vehicles after one of its robotaxis entered a flooded road. The new incident highlights the challenges that level-4 autonomous driving still faces in dynamic and unpredictable environments such as roadworks, where temporary signage and route changes confuse systems based on predefined maps. With more than 3,700 robotaxis operating in 10 US metropolitan areas, Waymo has committed to restoring highway service once it is verified that the software update definitively resolves the fault. Meanwhile, the company continues to accumulate surface-street driving miles, where the problem has not manifested.
— Marta, for intermitente intelligence.
