- The NHTSA says recent Waymo incidents involved collisions with “clearly visible objects.”
- Waymo says its proud of its safety record over tens of millions of autonomous miles driven.
- The technology company needs to share footage of the incidents with the NHTSA by June 11.
Just two weeks after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation started investigating Waymo due to reports of 22 incidents involving its self-driving prototypes, the agency has learned of nine additional incidents.
The NHTSA says that many of the newly reported incidents under investigation “involved collisions with clearly visible objects that a competent driver would be expected to avoid.” It added that previous “reports include collisions with stationary and semi-stationary objects such as gates and chains, collisions with parked vehicles, and instances in which the [automated driving system] appeared to disobey traffic safety control devices or rules.”
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The agency says Waymo must answer a series of questions about the incidents by June 11 and share footage of them.
An investigation from the NHTSA will determine if the vehicles pose an unreasonable risk to safety and if they do, it may issue a recall. The NHTSA added it has concerns that Waymo vehicles “exhibiting such unexpected driving behaviors may increase the risk of a crash, property damage, or injury.”
Waymo’s current fifth-generation automated driving system is being tested by several hundred robotaxi prototypes across the United States. The company has not commented on the NHTSA’s concerns and says it is “proud of our performance and safety record over tens of millions of autonomous miles driven,” reports Reuters.
In February, the self-driving division of technology giant Alphabet announced it had conducted a voluntary recall for software that had been used across its fleet after two of its test vehicles hit a pickup that was being towed in Phoenix on December 11. No one was injured in the crashes. The software was updated on December 20 but it wasn’t until February that Waymo submitted the recall report through the NHTSA.
