Waymo LLC recalled 3,871 vehicles equipped with its fifth generation Automated Driving System because it may allow the vehicle to drive into closed freeway construction zones at speed instead of following required detours.
The company cited six incidents, one on April 11 and five more on April 19, in which the vehicles ignored signage warning of closed ramps and drove “into pre-planned freeway construction zones in Phoenix, AZ.”
The same issue occurred again in mid-May when seven Waymo vehicles in the San Francisco Bay area drove between the cones marking closed and available traffic lanes, according to the filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Naturally, this increases the risk for crashes, injuries, or death, of which none have been reported.
Waymo plans to update the system software to avoid entering a construction zone as well as being able to detect when the vehicle is within a construction zone. Since the company uses different vehicles as part of its service, the updates are for the technology in the vehicle, not the vehicle itself.
This is the second recall of Waymo vehicles in the past two months after they encountered situations that were potentially dangerous and opted to continue operating.
Last month, the company recalled 3,791 vehicles equipped with its fifth- and sixth-generation system because those setups may allow a vehicle to drive onto a flooded roadway, which could damage the vehicle as well as causing potential harm or worse to the vehicle’s occupants.
On April 20, a Waymo vehicle ran into a flooded section of road that could not be traversed, but entered the area at a reduced speed anyway. The vehicle was not carrying passengers at the time. After the event, Waymo implemented new restrictions “at times and in locations where there is an elevated risk of encountering a flooded, higher-speed roadway.”
[Images: Waymo]
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via Autobuzz Today
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