The automated driving software at the heart of Waymo, a robotics startup owned by Google's parent company Alphabet, is now under investigation by a US federal agency.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration OPEN a preliminary assessment of about 444 autonomous Waymo vehicles on Tuesday after receiving 22 reports of Waymo's robot taxi behaving unexpectedly.
Reports detailed that some of Waymo's self-driving cars appeared to drive into opposite lanes, enter construction zones and disregard traffic safety rules. In certain cases, they collided with parked vehicles or objects such as gates.
The file did not record any injured or victim as a result of these collisions.
NHTSA received news of crash incidents from Waymo and counted others from publicly available reports.
The agency will now evaluate how well Waymo's automated driving system picks up traffic control devices, responds to them and avoids contact with other vehicles.
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Waymo publicly advertised its latest numbers recently: 50,000 paid trips taken every week and over a million total rider-only trips.
Waymo claims its robotaxi is significantly safer than human-directed vehicles, and has released research reports supporting her claims.
The data so far shows that our vehicles are improving road safety for all road users – cyclists, pedestrians and other drivers. And with an all-electric fleet powered by renewable energy, we're working to support the sustainability goals of the cities where we operate.
— Waymo (@Waymo) May 9, 2024
The Waymo probe is the second robotaxi investigation NHTSA has announced in two days. This is the agency's fourth request for self-driving technology in less than a month.
NHTSA went public an investigation at Amazon-backed Zoox on Monday behind its self-driving cars brake suddenly two separate times, causing rear-end collisions.
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In April, NHTSA said it was investigating Ford's BlueCruise driver assistance behind two Mustang Mach-E cars equipped with the technology collided with stationary cars.
The agency is also looking into Tesla's Autopilot technology, which has been linked to it 200 accidents and 29 victims.
Tesla will soon enter the robot market: CEO Elon Musk has written the unveiling of the Tesla Robotaxi will take place on August 8.
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