Waymo is recalling the autonomous driving software across 3,791 of its vehicles after one of its robotaxis drove into a flooded section of road it could not safely traverse. The Alphabet-owned company filed the recall with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in May 2026.
According to NHTSA documents, an unoccupied Waymo vehicle “encountered an untraversable flooded section of a roadway that has a 40 mph speed limit.” Despite detecting the flooding, the vehicle “proceeded at reduced speed.” No injuries were reported in the incident.
The recall covers vehicles running Waymo’s fifth and sixth generation autonomous driving systems. It marks the first recall of the sixth generation system, which launched earlier in 2026 and is designed for high-volume production. Waymo’s current fleet of Jaguar I-Pace vehicles runs on the fifth generation system, first introduced in March 2020. That older system has now been recalled five times, with previous incidents including driving past stopped school buses and colliding with stationary objects.
Waymo said it is working on a permanent remedy. In the meantime, the company has updated its vehicles to “increase weather-related constraints” and revised vehicle maps.
The incident raises questions about how autonomous vehicles handle unexpected road conditions caused by extreme weather. Waymo has largely operated in cities with warmer, drier climates — including Phoenix, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Austin. As the company plans to expand to East Coast cities such as Boston, New York City, and Washington, DC, its ability to handle more adverse weather conditions may become a significant factor in that rollout.
Source: The Verge