Waymo Recalls Emergency Robotaxis Will Drive Faster to Freeway Construction Sites

Waymo has written its fourth safety recall since February 2024, after its driverless cars were caught entering roadblocks.

The recall, issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on June 17, appears to affect Waymo’s entire US fleet, which includes 3,871 vehicles in operation. That’s it 5th Generation automated drive system (ADS).

NHTSA estimates that 100 percent of the affected units have the problem, which is described in the file. safety recall report such as “in some cases, an AV may enter and drive too fast in freeway construction areas due to improper priority to avoid other freeway accidents or failure to recognize construction areas.”

Waymo started offering road trips by the end of 2025and the main problem seems to be the inability to think clearly. According to NHTSA’s filing, ADS sometimes failed to detect construction zones, and sometimes made hasty decisions to drive through them because they were busy avoiding other hazards on the road. Both of these would lead to the same result: a driverless car speeding down a closed road.

The events that triggered the recall appear to have started earlier this year. On April 11th and 19th, Waymo vehicles in Phoenix passed closed signs in designated construction areas. Waymo’s Field Safety Committee has responded by banning road traffic.

Then, on May 18, seven Waymo vehicles in the San Francisco Bay Area drove between construction cones until the road was blocked. Although no collisions or injuries were reported in these incidents, it was this second group that caused a multi-channel blocking and company. Waymo’s Safety Board reviewed the matter on June 1, and on June 8 decided to issue a formal recall.

“Waymo’s mission is to be the world’s most trusted driver, and data shows we’re making the roads safer in the communities we serve,” Waymo said in an email to WIRED. “We were aware of the progress of highway construction. We voluntarily suspended the previous highways last month while we prepared, notified state and federal officials, and decided to write a letter to NHTSA.”

Most importantly, a software fix for this potentially fatal bug has not been found. Indeed, NHTSA’s filing states that a permanent solution is “currently under development.”

Waymo’s temporary response is to keep all of its vehicles off the freeways, a major setback for the company that already offers ride-hailing services in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Miami.

However, because Waymo owns every car in its fleet, there are no owners to notify them. The configuration, when processed, will be released as an airborne ADS program.

This is the fourth time in about 28 months that Waymo has issued a safety recall. In May 2025, Waymo recalled 1,212 robotaxis due to collisions with road barriers following a preliminary investigation by NHTSA citing seven incidents between December 2022 and April 2024. it was swept away in the river.

The latest recall does not affect Waymo’s new 6th Generation vehicles, apparently, and the company’s vehicles will continue to operate on US roads.