Waymo issued a recall after two robotaxis crashed into the same pickup truck

Final yr, two Waymo robotaxis in Phoenix “made contact” with the identical pickup truck that was within the midst of being towed, which prompted the Alphabet subsidiary to challenge a recall on its automobiles’ software program. A “recall” on this case meant rolling out a software program replace after investigating the problem and figuring out its root trigger.

In a weblog publish, Waymo has revealed that on December 11, 2023, one among its robotaxis collided with a backwards-facing pickup truck being towed forward of it. The corporate says the truck was being towed improperly and was angled throughout a middle flip lane and a visitors lane. Apparently, the tow truck did not pull over after the incident, and one other Waymo car got here into contact with the pickup truck a couple of minutes later. Waymo did not elaborate on what it meant by saying that its robotaxis “made contact” with the pickup truck, but it surely did say that the incidents resulted in no accidents and solely minor car harm. The self-driving automobiles concerned within the collisions weren’t carrying any passenger.

After an investigation, Waymo discovered that its software program had incorrectly predicted the long run actions of the pickup truck because of “persistent orientation mismatch” between the towed car and the one towing it. The corporate developed and validated a repair for its software program to forestall comparable incidents sooner or later and began deploying the replace to its fleet on December 20.

Waymo’s rival firm Cruise was concerned in a extra critical incident final yr, whereby one among its robotaxis by accident dragged somebody hit by one other car just a few dozen toes down a San Francisco avenue. California then suspended its license to function within the state, and Cruise ultimately paused all robotaxi operations, even those with a human driver behind the wheel, as a part of a security evaluate. In the meantime, it is enterprise as standard for Waymo, which lately introduced that it’s going to begin testing driverless automobiles on highways and freeways in and round Phoenix.