Waymo pauses robotaxis in five US cities amid flood risk

Waymo has paused its self-driving car service in five US cities in response to a software issue that caused some vehicles to enter flooded roads and become stuck, the company said.

The US firm recently issued a recall of thousands of robotaxis after an April 20 incident in San Antonio, Texas, when an empty Waymo vehicle drove into a flooded road and was swept into a creek.

Following a similar incident in Atlanta, Georgia, a Waymo spokesperson said the company expanded the temporary pause to five cities — four in Texas and Atlanta — “out of an abundance of caution.”

The company told Reuters it had also suspended services on US freeways as it works to improve vehicle performance in construction zones.

Waymo, which hopes to operate a robotaxi service in London later this year, told the BBC that safety was its “highest priority.”

“We continue to closely monitor forecasts, alerts, and live weather conditions, and we will resume serving riders soon,” the company said.

The software problem, which could allow vehicles “to slow and then drive into standing water on higher speed roadways,” was highlighted in a letter posted on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website earlier this month.

In response, Waymo issued a voluntary recall of nearly 3,800 robotaxis using its fifth- and sixth-generation automated driving systems and said it was working on “additional software safeguards.”

On Wednesday, an unoccupied Waymo robotaxi was reported trapped in floodwater on a road in Atlanta.

Meanwhile, the firm temporarily pulled its service on freeways in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Miami, and said it was evaluating vehicle performance in construction zones.

In a statement given to Reuters, the company said it expected to resume those routes soon.

Waymo, owned by Google parent Alphabet, says it provides more than 500,000 trips per week across multiple US cities including San Francisco, Austin, and Miami.

Over the past year, several incidents with driverless cars have raised concerns about their safety.

In December 2025, a large power outage in San Francisco caused Waymo taxis to stop working around the city, causing significant disruption.

And in April, a mass Apollo Go robotaxi outage in the Chinese city of Wuhan caused at least 100 self-driving cars to stop in traffic.

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