Waymo is recalling nearly 4,000 robo-taxis to prevent them from driving in highway construction zones

Waymo has recalled its fleet of nearly 4,000 robotaxis to ban them from driving on highways while it figures out how to make the vehicles behave around construction zones.

The recall comes after Waymo identified at least 13 instances of its robotaxis driving on sections of highways that were closed for construction. Six of these incidents occurred in Phoenix, Arizona in April, and seven occurred in San Francisco, California in May.

Waymo pulled its robotaxis from all highways on May 19, and a solution to the problem is “currently in development,” Waymo said. filings With the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The company is not pulling vehicles off the road and is still operating on surface streets, although the company has periodically paused service during severe weather that could lead to flooding.

“We have identified room for improvement regarding performance around highway construction zones,” the company said in a statement to TechCrunch. “We voluntarily restricted highway operations last month while we made improvements, proactively notified state and federal regulators, and decided to submit a voluntary software recall to NHTSA.”

This is the sixth recall Waymo has issued for its robotic vehicles. In May, the company subsequently recalled its robotaxis He drove onto flooded roadsIn December, it issued one to address illegal behavior of its vehicles School buses. Waymo previously issued recalls to fix low-speed collisions with Chains and gates and Telephone polesAnd one to solve the problem Regarding towed trucks.

The company’s driving software is currently under investigation by the NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board regarding its behavior around school buses after one of the robotaxis struck a child near a school in January.

Waymo, owned by Alphabet, says its cars have driven more than 170 million miles autonomously, and claims to have shown a 13-fold reduction in serious injuries or worse accidents compared to human drivers.

Robotaxi is expanding aggressively, and plans to launch in more than 20 cities this year alone, including London and Tokyo. The expansion has helped highlight a number of edge cases that Waymo’s Robotaxi program has been plagued with, which now include highway construction zones.

Waymo, which It began offering highway rides In November 2025, it told NHTSA that its robo-taxi “did not recognize signs of ramp closures and overrode into previously planned freeway construction zones” in mid-April in Phoenix. After a review, the company’s Field Safety Committee restricted highway operations in the city while Waymo worked on the repair, NHTSA documents show.

On May 18, seven Waymo robotaxis plowed into freeway lanes under active construction in the San Francisco Bay Area because the company’s software was “prioritizing avoiding other highway hazards and/or failing to recognize a construction zone.” The company stopped all highway driving the next day. Waymo’s safety board decided to issue the recall on June 8.

Footage of some of these incidents was shared on social media. On May 19, User to publish A video in which they claimed a Waymo car “blown through cones” and said police “chased it”.

“There were construction signs,” Slade He said CBS News last month. “There were lights on. The police were a distance away and they were speeding up. That’s when I looked at my fiancée, ‘We’re done. This is it. We’re dead. We’re going to die here at Waymo.’

Waymo offered Slade “three free rides worth up to $40 each in the future,” according to CBS.