Waymo is happening a 10-city highway journey throughout the U.S., together with cities like Boston, Dallas, Las Vegas, and Nashville. | Supply: Waymo
Waymo recalled 1,212 robotaxis to handle dangers of collisions with chains, gates, and different roadway obstacles. The corporate mentioned it resolved the underlying software program situation by way of a November 2024 replace that lowered the probability of a lot of these occasions. The recall doesn’t affect its operations or any automobiles presently on the highway, the corporate mentioned.
U.S. auto security investigators from the Nationwide Freeway and Visitors Security Administration (NHTSA) opened a probe into the problem final yr. Waymo mentioned that between 2022 and late 2024, its automobiles had been concerned in 16 collisions with chains, gates, and different obstacles. None of those resulted in any accidents, based on the NHTSA. The corporate operates over 1,500 automobiles on the roads in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin, Texas.
“Waymo supplies greater than 250,000 paid journeys each week in among the most difficult driving environments within the U.S. We maintain ourselves to a excessive security normal, and our file of lowering accidents over tens of thousands and thousands of totally autonomous miles pushed exhibits our know-how is making roads safer. NHTSA performs an important position in highway security, and we are going to proceed to work collaboratively with the company as a part of our mission to be the world’s most trusted driver,” a Waymo spokesperson informed The Robotic Report.
In 2024, the self-driving unit of Google-parent Alphabet issued a voluntary software program recall for 672 robotaxis after one autonomously drove right into a phone pole in Phoenix, Ariz. After finishing the software program replace, the Mountain View, Calif.-based firm filed the recall with the Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration (NHTSA).
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Waymo balances security with speedy progress
Waymo has emerged as a transparent chief within the robotaxi area within the U.S. The corporate is planning to launch robotaxi providers in Miami, Atlanta, Washington D.C., and Tokyo within the coming years. Simply this week, it introduced plans to ship a small fleet of automobiles to discover Boston.
Waymo was named the 2025 Robotic of the Yr by The Robotic Report. Waymo and all of the RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards winners had been honored on the Robotics Summit & Expo in Boston two weeks in the past.
Waymo additionally simply partnered with Toyota. The businesses are collaborating on a brand new autonomous car platform to carry autonomous driving capabilities to the subsequent era of personally-owned automobiles.
Because it has quickly expanded, the corporate has additionally put an emphasis on security and transparency. It makes its efficiency information out there, downloadable, and analyzable for the general public.
In December, Waymo shared new analysis with Swiss Re, one of many world’s largest insurance coverage suppliers, analyzing legal responsibility claims associated to collisions from 25.3 million totally autonomous miles pushed by the Waymo Driver. The research expands on Waymo’s earlier analysis by utilizing auto legal responsibility claims combination statistics as a proxy for at-fault collisions.
The research in contrast Waymo’s legal responsibility claims to human driver baselines, that are based mostly on Swiss Re’s information from over 500,000 claims and over 200 billion miles of publicity. It discovered the Waymo Driver demonstrated higher security efficiency when in comparison with human-driven automobiles. It confirmed an 88% discount in property harm claims and a 92% discount in bodily harm claims.
Throughout 25.3 million miles, the Waymo Driver was concerned in simply 9 property harm claims and two bodily harm claims. Each bodily harm claims are nonetheless open and described within the paper. For a similar distance, human drivers can be anticipated to have 78 property harm and 26 bodily harm claims.
