Waymo has issued a voluntary recall of all 672 Jaguar I-Pace robotaxis after one of the cars crashed into a telephone pole. This is Waymo’s second recall. The Alphabet-owned company Recall of previous software In February two of its robotaxis collided with the same pickup truck that was being pulled by a tow truck.
Verge The news first came after Waymo alerted the publication of its recall measure — a sign that the robotaxi company is taking a proactive approach amid growing scrutiny from regulators and the general public. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is currently Investigating WaymoAfter the autonomous vehicle software 31 reports received The potential for robotaxis to crash or violate traffic safety laws.
NHTSA confirmed to TechCrunch that it has received Waymo’s recall documents and is processing them for publication on its website.
“This is our second voluntary recall,” Waymo spokeswoman Katherine Barna told TechCrunch. “It reflects how seriously we take our responsibility to deploy our technology securely and communicate transparently with the public.”
Transparency is top of mind for most autonomous vehicle companies after GM’s Cruise disbands in October and November 2023. While Cruise is slowly returning back In the markets, the company lost your permit to work in California and grounded his entire fleet When one of its robotaxi crushed a pedestrian and dragged him 20 feet last year, the company’s reputation was damaged, not because of the nature of the incident — a human-driven vehicle hit the pedestrian first, pushing him into the path of a Cruise robotaxi — but because of Cruise executives Key details hidden The incident was reported to the regulators.
The accident that prompted Waymo’s second recall occurred on May 21, when a Waymo vehicle in Phoenix, without a human safety operator on board, collided with a telephone pole in an alley during a slow-speed pullover maneuver.
Local Reports Says Waymo was traveling to pick up a passenger across a street that had wooden telephone poles on either side that were level with the road and bordered by yellow lines to designate the path for vehicles. The Waymo vehicle slowed to stop and collided with a pole at a speed of 8 mph. Video of the crashed vehicle shows it appears to have hit the pole directly. Waymo’s robotaxi suffered some damage, but no passengers or pedestrians were injured.
“We began working immediately and found that in some situations, our vehicles had insufficient ability to avoid collisions with narrow, permanent objects within the roadable surface,” Barna said. “We have since implemented mapping and software updates.”
The passenger told 12News that Waymo — on what would have been his first trip — never came to pick him up.
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