No Waymo! TWO of Google’s self-driving taxis crash into a pickup truck in Arizona within minutes of each other, forcing the company to issue a recall
In what appears to be an epidemic of vehicle recalls, self-driving car service Waymo has issued a software recall after two of its vehicles collided with a tow truck in December.
A tow truck was pulling a pickup truck in Phoenix, Arizona, when a Waymo vehicle’s camera sensor misjudged the truck’s location and caused the collision.
The truck continued driving and was struck by a second Waymo vehicle a few minutes later. There were no passengers in either Waymo vehicle at the time of the accident.
Waymo announced the recall in a blog post on Tuesday, repeatedly calling the incident a “rare event” and saying it had immediately begun rolling out a software update to its entire fleet of autonomous vehicles.
Waymo issued a voluntary recall after two of its self-driving vehicles collided with the same two trucks just minutes apart
The company said it reported the crashes to the Phoenix Police Department, the Arizona Department of Public Safety and the NHTSA and conducted an internal review of the two incidents.
Waymo said: “Given our commitment to safety, our team immediately went to work to understand what had happened.”
It reported that the pickup was reportedly “improperly towed” and tilted to the point where it was between a center turn lane and a lane of traffic on Dec. 11, 2023.
Because the pickup was partially in a separate lane, Waymo’s AV software perceived the pickup and the tow truck as two separate vehicles, causing the ride-share vehicle to incorrectly predict which direction the tow truck was traveling.
No one was injured in the crash and the vehicles suffered minimal damage from the crash, the company said.
Waymo’s recall included a software update for its entire fleet of autonomous vehicles between December and January
Waymo began accepting passengers in early 2022, but self-driving companies have recently come under fire for accidents involving their autonomous vehicles, despite claims that they are potentially safer than human drivers.
A Waymo vehicle fatally struck a dog while in self-driving mode when a person test-drove the autonomous feature in San Francisco in June 2023.
In July, a Waymo in Tempe, Arizona, caused a three-car pileup when it braked to avoid hitting a downed branch. There was one rider in the vehicle who suffered minor injuries.
In yet another incident, one of Waymo’s self-driving vehicles hit a cyclist last week after reportedly not seeing the person until it was too late.
Waymo AV uses light detection to create a 3D image of what is happening around the vehicle and uses lidar sensors to send millions of ‘laser pulses’ in all directions.
The amount of time it takes for a pulse to bounce off an object tells the vehicle how far away a person, car, sidewalk or other object is.
It also has 360-degree cameras that allow it to see traffic lights, construction zones and other objects hundreds of meters away in both daylight and low light.
Waymo uses laser sensors, a radar, 360-degree camera and an on-board computer to assess the environment
The vehicle’s radar detector provides information about the distance and speed of another object, while the on-board computer collects in real time all the data from the cameras and sensors to identify the different objects and plan the best route to its destination.
Self-driving Waymo car in ‘autonomous mode’ with test driver behind the wheel kills dog in San Francisco
Self-driving Waymo car in ‘autonomous mode’ with test driver behind the wheel kills dog in San Francisco
After determining that the guidance system was not functioning properly, Waymo changed and updated the vehicle software on all its vehicles between December and January.
The company said it consulted with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) four times and ultimately chose to issue a voluntary recall, which serves as a notice to the public that it has implemented the update.
Waymo did not specify what the software update entails, but a spokesperson told Dailymail.com that it addressed the autonomous driving system’s fault when it incorrectly predicted the future movement of the towed vehicle.
The company has not taken its self-driving vehicles off the road and said the recall has not affected service.
“This voluntary recall reflects how seriously we take our responsibility to deploy our technology safely and communicate transparently with the public,” Waymo said.
“Hundreds of recall reports are filed with NHTSA each year and we respect the importance of this road safety framework and our relevant legal obligations.”
Waymo declined Dailymail.com’s request for comment.