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 subject via a November 2024 replace that diminished the probability of a lot of these occasions. The recall doesn’t impression its operations or any automobiles at present 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 12 months. 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, in keeping with the NHTSA. The corporate operates over 1,500 automobiles on the roads in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin, Texas.
“Waymo gives greater than 250,000 paid journeys each week in a number of the most difficult driving environments within the U.S. We maintain ourselves to a excessive security commonplace, and our document of lowering accidents over tens of tens of millions of absolutely autonomous miles pushed reveals our expertise is making roads safer. NHTSA performs an important function 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 advised 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 fast progress
Waymo has emerged as a transparent chief within the robotaxi area within the U.S. The corporate is planning to launch robotaxi companies 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 automobile platform to convey 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 absolutely autonomous miles pushed by the Waymo Driver. The examine expands on Waymo’s earlier analysis by utilizing auto legal responsibility claims mixture statistics as a proxy for at-fault collisions.
The examine 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 injury claims and a 92% discount in bodily damage claims.
Throughout 25.3 million miles, the Waymo Driver was concerned in simply 9 property injury claims and two bodily damage claims. Each bodily damage claims are nonetheless open and described within the paper. For a similar distance, human drivers can be anticipated to have 78 property injury and 26 bodily damage claims.
