Waymo is recalling 3,871 robotaxis in the US due to a software issue that could cause vehicles to drive into freeway construction zones.
According to a recall report filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Wednesday, there were 13 instances in which Waymo vehicles entered restricted construction areas.
Six incidents in April involved vehicles failing to recognize ramp-closure signs and driving into pre-planned freeway construction zones in Phoenix.
The other seven incidents occurred in May, when vehicles entered freeway lanes with active construction in the San Francisco Bay Area “by driving between cones designating lane closure in the adjacent lane,” per the filing.
The report did not indicate whether any crashes or injuries occurred.
According to the recall acknowledgment letter, Waymo has limited freeway driving and plans to update its software to prevent vehicles from entering construction zones while it works on a permanent fix.
“We identified an area of improvement regarding performance around freeway construction zones,” a Waymo spokesperson told Business Insider in a statement. “We voluntarily restricted freeway operations last month while making improvements, proactively notified state and federal regulators, and decided to file a voluntary software recall with NHTSA.”
The recall comes about seven months after Waymo became the first fully autonomous ride-hailing service in the US to carry passengers on freeways.
This is the second time this year that Waymo has recalled its vehicles. Waymo’s previous recall came in May, after an incident in which one of its driverless taxis entered a flooded street.
“On higher speed roadways, the Waymo AV may slow but not stop in response to detecting a potentially untraversable flooded lane,” per a May 6 filing with the NHTSA.
This also marks the sixth recall the company has issued for its robotaxi fleet.
Waymo has previously issued recalls to fix issues that could cause its robotaxis to inaccurately predict the movement of a towed vehicle, fail to avoid poles, collide with chains and gates, or pass a stopped school bus.
The company is also under investigation by federal safety regulators following a January incident in which one of its robotaxis struck a child near a Santa Monica elementary school.
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