Waymo recalls that because of the risks, robotaxis will drive them quickly into highway construction zones

Waymo has provided Its fourth safety recall since February 2024, after its self-driving cars were caught entering closed highway construction zones.

The recall, which was filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on June 17, appears to affect Waymo’s entire U.S. fleet, which covers 3,871 vehicles operating Waymo Fifth generation automated driving system (ADS).

NHTSA estimates that 100 percent of affected units carry the defect, which is described in the filing Safety recall report “Under certain conditions, the spacecraft may enter and drive rapidly into highway construction zones due to inappropriate prioritization to avoid other highway hazards and/or failure to recognize the construction zone.”

Waymo has started offering highway rides In late 2025The main problem seems to be a failure of the priority logic. According to the NHTSA file, the ADS sometimes failed to recognize construction zones, and in other cases chose to drive through them because he was busy avoiding other hazards on the highway. Both situations could lead to the same result: a driverless car traveling at highway speed through a closed work zone.

The events leading up to the recall appear to have begun earlier this year. On April 11 and 19, Waymo vehicles in Phoenix drove through ramp closure signs into previously planned construction zones. Waymo’s Field Safety Committee responded by restricting highway operations.

Then, on May 18, seven Waymo vehicles in the San Francisco Bay Area drove between construction cones to block the active path. Although no collisions or injuries were reported as a result of these events, it was this second group that led to an accident Wider highway ban By the company. Waymo’s safety board reviewed the issue on June 1, and on June 8 decided to issue a formal recall.

“Waymo’s mission is to be the world’s most trusted driver, and data shows we’re making roads safer in the communities where we operate,” Waymo’s statement emailed to WIRED said. “We identified room for improvement regarding performance around highway construction zones. 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.”

More importantly, there is still no software fix for this potentially serious bug. In fact, the NHTSA filing notes that a permanent treatment is “currently in development.”

Waymo’s temporary response is to ban all of its vehicles from freeways entirely, a major operational restriction for a company that previously offered freeway rides in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Miami.

However, since Waymo owns every vehicle in its fleet, there is no owner to report to. The fix, when programmed, will be released as an update to the OTA software.

This is the fourth time in about 28 months that Waymo has had to issue a safety recall. In May 2025, Waymo recalled 1,212 robo-taxis for crashing into fixed road barriers after an initial NHTSA assessment indicating at least seven crashes between December 2022 and April 2024. In May of this year, Waymo recalled 3,791 vehicles after a robo-taxi hit an impassable, flooded road in San Antonio, and Swept creek.

This latest recall does not affect Waymo’s latest sixth-generation vehicles, it appears, and the company’s vehicles will continue to operate the service on surface streets in the US.