Waymo is ending its robotaxi service on high-speed highways in the United States for safety reasons

Waymo temporarily suspends autonomous rides on highways

The Waymo company, part of the Alphabet holding alongside Google, manages the largest fleet of driverless taxis in the United States and places a strong emphasis on safety. Sometimes it independently limits its fleet’s operations before regulators make a decision.

What happened this week

* Waymo stopped servicing routes that include exits onto highways.

* In Atlanta (Georgia), the company temporarily disabled its robotaxis to update its control software. The new version is expected to improve navigation in flooded areas and road repair zones.

After the update, algorithms will be further refined, after which the cars can again use highways across the country. Until now autonomous rides on highways were only available near San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, and Phoenix.

How this affects city operations

Within urban zones Waymo continues to operate normally. However problems still persist: the cars sometimes stop in flooded roadway areas during heavy rains. Last Wednesday one of the vehicles without passengers stopped in the middle of a large puddle in Atlanta.

Earlier this month the company had already updated its software to train safe traversal of flooded sections. Now, if a robotaxi cannot bypass a flooded area, its speed will be significantly reduced to avoid accident situations.