Waymo investigation opened following collisions and traffic violations

U.S. security regulators have opened a probe into driverless ride-hailing firm Waymo, after receiving practically two dozen stories of the self-driving software program crashing into semi-stationary objects and disobeying site visitors legal guidelines.

On Monday, the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration (NHTSA) opened a preliminary investigation into the Alphabet-owned self-driving firm, after 22 incidents involving Waymo autos have been reported to the Workplace of Defects Investigation (ODI). As detailed within the ODI’s opening resume, Waymo robotaxis within the complaints both drove into stationary or semi-stationary objects, or behaved unexpectedly, disobeying site visitors legal guidelines and typically inflicting follow-up accidents.

The report says that the Waymo autos collided with objects similar to gates and chains, parked autos, and different circumstances by which the driverless autos didn’t correctly observe site visitors management programs. The probe applies to an estimated 444 of Waymo’s Jaguar I-Tempo items.

You possibly can see the total ODI resume for the NHTSA investigation beneath.

Waymo Nhtsa Investigation -… by zacharydvisconti

The NHTSA additionally opened an analogous investigation into Amazon-owned Zoox this week, after two incidents by which the corporate’s autos with ADS engaged exhibited surprising habits, resulting in collisions with motorcyclists.

In March, Waymo was approved to expand driverless testing to more areas of the San Francisco peninsula and to Los Angeles, after applying for the approvals in January. Regardless of the approval, the corporate additionally faces authorized challenges from a number of California counties and organizations, and it may very well be threatened by a bill proposing to give more power to individual communities in choosing whether or not, where, or how robotaxis can operate locally.

The latest probes additionally come forward of Tesla’s plans to unveil a robotaxi platform in August, based mostly on the corporate’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system. Throughout its Q1 2024 earnings call, Tesla also teased a ride-hailing app for the upcoming platform, noting that it believes its camera-based FSD software program is the important thing to attaining scalable, worthwhile autonomy and ride-sharing.

Here’s what the NHTSA wants to know about how Tesla’s Autopilot monitors drivers

What are your ideas? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, discover me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or ship us ideas at tips@teslarati.com.

Waymo investigation opened following collisions and site visitors violations