Waymo Pauses Atlanta Service As Its Robotaxis Keep Driving Into Floods (techcrunch.com)
- Reference: 0183309976
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/05/21/170236/waymo-pauses-atlanta-service-as-its-robotaxis-keep-driving-into-floods
- Source link: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/21/waymo-pauses-atlanta-service-as-its-robotaxis-keep-driving-into-floods/
> Waymo admitted that it hadn't finished developing a "final remedy" for avoiding flooded areas when it issued its software recall last week. Instead, the company said that it shipped an update to its fleet that placed "restrictions at times and in locations where there is an elevated risk of encountering a flooded, higher-speed roadway," according to documents released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
>
> But even those precautions apparently were not enough to stop the Waymo robotaxi from entering the flooded intersection in Atlanta. Waymo told TechCrunch on Thursday that the storm in Atlanta produced so much rainfall that flooding was happening before the National Weather Service had issued a flash flood warning, watch, or advisory. The company said its fleet those alerts are part of a larger set of signals it relies on to prepare the vehicles for poor weather.
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/21/waymo-pauses-atlanta-service-as-its-robotaxis-keep-driving-into-floods/
[2] https://www.wbir.com/article/news/nation-world/waymo-suspended-atlanta-flood-water/507-ff041e43-ff59-48c2-a444-70915fbb99e3
[3] https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2026/RCAK-26E026-9973.pdf
What's the problem here? (Score:2)
Don't they already [1]employ workers [autoblog.com] that are [2]reasonably familiar [unfccc.int] with these situations?
[1] https://www.autoblog.com/news/waymo-uses-remote-workers-in-the-philippines-to-assist-its-self-driving-cars
[2] https://unfccc.int/climate-action/momentum-for-change/activity-database/urban-flood-monitoring
Re: (Score:2)
You can't request help with a problem before identifying the problem. Given that the cars are driving directly into flood water, they are obviously not identifying the problem.
Re: (Score:2)
> Of course, there is also the question as to why some of these Atlanta streets are flooding like this (this actually seems to be the bigger failure that needs to be addressed).
The explanation was that the drains were clogged due to items such as leaves and trash blocking the drains (as to why Atlanta did not proactively clean up the debris in advance of the rain would be a different question).
Re: Water water everywhere..... (Score:1)
I know itâ(TM)s nobodyâ(TM)s âoejobâ but Iâ(TM)ve walked over with a shovel during a storm and cleaned the drains on a flooding intersection on my street before. The water was already up over my work boots when I got there and I didnâ(TM)t want the flooding to become my problem so I handled it before it became one. It was amazing how fast the intersection cleared that much water once the 4 drains were open.
Re: Water water everywhere..... (Score:2)
I can't believe you're actually getting all this, and stepped back, and said, What's wrong with this picture?
Hig Speed? (Score:2)
> where there is an elevated risk of encountering a flooded, higher-speed roadway,
The road in TFA didn't appear to be a "high speed roadway". It doesn't really matter how slow you try to drive through a puddle like that. Suck some water into the intake manifold and your engine's a goner. Even worse with EVs, I've heard. Pictures somewhere of a parking lot full of water damaged EVs catching fire.
Re: (Score:2)
That is inconvenient for the passengers. But the bigger concern here might be that people sometimes also die in cars that were driven into a flooded road.
Washington's State Patrol is fond of pointing out that the majority of flood deaths in our state are people who've driven into a flood - often after intentionally going around a "road closed" sign / barrier.
Re: (Score:2)
True. It's damned tough to get out of a car that's being pushed across a farmers field by a flooding creek. And it doesn't take much water velocity to move a vehicle and pin the doors closed.
Re: (Score:2)
Didn't the current administration cut back on funding for the National Weather Service just over a year ago? I remember the cuts as having been directed more towards hurricane/tornado warnings but they can't be considered in isolation.
Absurdity abounds (Score:2)
> Posted by BeauHD on 2026.05.21 11:02 from the water-+-EVs-=-bad dept.
So water minus EVs is negative bad?
Meanwhile, in Texas:
[1]https://www.bbc.com/news/artic... [bbc.com]
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c072x1kml44o
Re: (Score:2)
> Meanwhile, in Texas:
> [1]https://www.bbc.com/news/artic... [bbc.com]
Apparently, "Texas Man" is jealous of all the attention "Florida Man" has been getting...
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c072x1kml44o
Alternate solution (Score:2)
> Waymo Pauses Atlanta Service As Its Robotaxis Keep Driving Into Floods
They just need to switch to [1]Amphicars [wikipedia.org] :-)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphicar
Humans drive into floods, too (Score:3)
In Arizona, the police routinely have to rescue people who drive around roadblocks into flooded arroyos and wind up with their vehicles floating down the wash. It got so bad while I lived there that the city had to start charging people a fee for their rescue to curb the stupidity.
A decade from now, I have no doubt that the authorities will still have to rescue drivers in flooded roadways. I am also certain that Waymo vehicles will have stopped making that mistake years earlier. We can fix autonomous vehicles. We can't fix humans. I'll take the Waymo, thank you.
Re: (Score:1)
> In Arizona, the police routinely have to rescue people [not in bot cars] who drive around roadblocks into flooded arroyos and wind up with their vehicles [stranded]
Most are also anti-vaxxers. Change My Mind!
Artificial stupidity (Score:2)
They're called AI, but in Arizona, there is a law that if you drive into water you will be billed for your rescue. It's known as the "stupid driver law".
So apparently the Waymo is driven by Artificial Stupidity.
That's a problem (Score:2)
Obviously that is a major failure: they are setting up geo-blocking to avoid areas where there may be flooding instead of having the AI avoid driving into a flood.
Aside from this not working because they can't geo-block areas quickly & accurately enough to avoid rapidly changing flood conditions... this shows that either their hardware is not capable of detecting flood waters on the street, or the AI can't be set to avoid it. I am betting this is a hardware issue -as in the hardware does not register t
But but but... LIDAR!!! (Score:2)
Wait, isn't everyone poking fun a Tesla for not using LIDAR? You mean LIDAR doesn't solve every vehicle navigation problem?
The punchline is that the dog can sing at all ... (Score:1)
I mean, we're to the bug fixing phase at this point. But we actually have self-driving cars. Dang!
Can't wait for robotaxi bankruptcy (Score:4, Interesting)
AI is bad enough, but these robotaxis are a scourge on society. They add to traffic, take away transit ridership, and don't even give humans a job, even a gig job.
Re: (Score:2)
LIAR!
They employ people in the Philippines!
I'm joking, of course. The fact there are even lower wage workers in another country doesn't really help. These companies are so cheap, they won't even employ people in the US to watch over their wayward gadgets. What's hilarious, and terrifying, is that Waymo is better than many at automated driving.
Re: Can't wait for robotaxi bankruptcy (Score:2)
These solve a different problem than transit does. And while the loss of gig jobs is unfortunate, that argument has never stopped the march of technology. Personally, I want a self-driving RV. Go to sleep and wake up at the destination.
Re: (Score:2)
What is the different problem that they solve?
I can't ever remember taking a taxi and wishing there wasn't a driver. The biggest problems seem to be cleanliness and "robo" isn't going to fix that. Why are tech companies so fixated on this non-problem?
Re: Can't wait for robotaxi bankruptcy (Score:2)
"Could" is the operative word. The Waymo cars "could" use their lidar to detect floodwater and not drive into it, but for some reason they didn't. This seems an easier problem than moving in perfect close formation at high speed which they "could" do.
Re: (Score:2)
Would the LIDAR even see the water? I would think that, being that the car as cell capabilities, it should be getting updates from the local DoT about road closures (of course, that assumes the DoT remembered to update it's road closure database that the robotaxi accesses).
Although, if me or you were in full control of the car, we'd see the flooded road and stop the car (unless the car has a snorkel).
Re: (Score:3)
What hooey. A Toronto streetcar (tram) is 28m long and can hold 130 people.
A Waymo taxi is probably around 4.5m long and can hold 5 people. So 28m worth of Waymo taxis bumper-to-bumper with zero clearance between them can hold 30 people... less than one-quarter of the tram. In reality, you're probably only going to get 15-20 people in the Waymos because of the clearance between them.
Individual vehicles are just about the worst way to move a lot of people efficiently.
Re: (Score:2)
Obviously, when I talk about transit, I'm talking within cities, not rural areas.
A well-designed transit network will get you from A to B directly or with at most one transfer. And OMG, you might have to walk 700 m or so... the horror!!!!!
Re: (Score:2)
> A Waymo taxi is probably around 4.5m long and can hold 5 people. So 28m worth of Waymo taxis bumper-to-bumper with zero clearance between them can hold 30 people... less than one-quarter of the tram. In reality, you're probably only going to get 15-20 people in the Waymos because of the clearance between them.
> Individual vehicles are just about the worst way to move a lot of people efficiently.
And will that tram pick up and deliver each of those 130 people directly at the doors of their homes or workplaces?
Re: (Score:2)
> And will that tram pick up and deliver each of those 130 people directly at the doors of their homes or workplaces?
Nope. But in my experience, in well-designed cities, you rarely need to walk more than about 250 m to 500 m on either end of the trip, and if you're working in a dense urban core, you often get delivered right to your building or very close to it.
I realize that "walking" is considered poisonous in the United States. My apologies.
Re: (Score:2)
> Nope. But in my experience, in well-designed cities, you rarely need to walk more than about 250 m to 500 m on either end of the trip, and if you're working in a dense urban core, you often get delivered right to your building or very close to it.
Ah, yes. Another "one day people like me will force people like you to live the way we think you should" post.
Keep dreaming!
Re: (Score:2)
> Ah, yes. Another "one day people like me will force people like you to live the way we think you should" post.
That's fucking stupid, and here's why: People like you supported and continue to support the people who forced people like him to buy a car.
Re: (Score:1)
> What hooey. A Toronto streetcar (tram) is 28m long and can hold 130 people.
> A Waymo taxi is probably around 4.5m long and can hold 5 people. So 28m worth of Waymo taxis bumper-to-bumper with zero clearance between them can hold 30 people... less than one-quarter of the tram. In reality, you're probably only going to get 15-20 people in the Waymos because of the clearance between them.
> Individual vehicles are just about the worst way to move a lot of people efficiently.
Um, yeah ... if they're all going the same place at the same time, lol.
Yes, you can increase efficiency of one aspect by seriously constraining something else. Big deal?
Re: (Score:2)
Yet robot taxis have proven safer than human in all those situations. And even if they aren't,, they are overall safer by 10x already with today's tech. And that's btw with very little investment into the tech, since everyone still thinks there is no way a car can drive itself --- even though they've been doing it for 5 years.
[1]https://waymo.com/safety/impac... [waymo.com]
[1] https://waymo.com/safety/impact/
Re: (Score:2)
Safety isn't the issue. Traffic congestion is the far bigger problem.
Re: (Score:2)
They solve the problem of people being able to drive wherever they want.
The future will be "I'm sorry Dave, I can't drive there."
Re: (Score:2)
> What is the different problem that they solve?
Here's one: the Waymo will never sexually harass a female passenger. And yes, a lot of women choose Waymo over Uber, Lyft, a taxi, or even public transit for exactly that reason.
It's amusing to see people assuming the "Get off my lawn!" roles of their elders over AI and autonomous vehicles. Not so long ago I recall similar "shout at the sky" attitudes on Slashdot about Uber and Lyft, which have now become the "good guys" because they employ human drivers (who
Re: (Score:2)
Cost and safety. Robotaxis will be a lot cheaper (in towns/cities) than owning a car. They will also be safer too, they get into far less accidents than human driven cars. [1]https://waymo.com/safety/impac... [waymo.com] That alone should override everything else. Another aspect of safety, many women only want to take robotaxis (seen in SF, AZ, TX etc.) In Atlanta where Waymos have to be ordered via the Uber app many women just keep canceling their ride in the app until it's a Waymo: [2]https://www.businessinsider.co... [businessinsider.com]
[1] https://waymo.com/safety/impact/
[2] https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-users-cancelling-human-driven-rides-get-waymo-taxi-atlanta-2025-8
Re: Can't wait for robotaxi bankruptcy (Score:1)
A dozen tons of RV on autopilot with humans asleep in the back. What could go wrong?
Look up the safety nets that truckers have to use when they sleep during team drives. That should give you an idea of the seriousness of this problem.
Re: (Score:2)
They're solving a different problem than the pathetic, execrable transit systems in most US cities do.
In properly-designed cities with properly-designed transit systems, transit is the most convenient way to get around a city.
Sure, have your self-driving RV. When everyone has one of those, you won't wake up at the destination. You'll wake up 20km from where you started because of self-driving RV gridlock.
Re: (Score:2)
> Personally, I want a self-driving RV. Go to sleep and wake up at the destination.
Yes, the magic house.
Twenty years from now the techno-nomadic lifestyle will be commonplace. Why own a home that stays in one spot when you can own a home that lets you wake up in a different destination whenever you want? Think of the modern RV culture, but multiplied 100-fold.
Re: (Score:2)
Night trains with sleeper cars does that, if you are in a location (several parts of Europe) where such services are available and serves major travel routes on suitable distances.
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I don't want to take transit. It stinks, it's unsafe, and takes away too long to get places. Humans don't need jobs, they need things. Robots can provide those things. Oh and if I want a job, if the car is driving itself, I can earn more money and even create new jobs by working from car.
Re: (Score:2)
If your transit sucks, complain to your politicians. Or move somewhere with decent transit. I guarantee that a city with decent transit will have a better quality of life in many other ways too.
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The transit in my city does not stink. I guess maybe people up here have better hygiene.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh also... if you have a job, quit it. And let us know how the "things" you need magically appear at your doorstep in a puff of fairy dust.
And sure, "working from car" makes so much more sense than working from a room that's not moving. Egads! We should get rid of office buildings entirely and put everyone in cars to work!
Re: (Score:2)
I don't want to take transit. It stinks, it's unsafe, and takes away too long to get places.
Yes we know America is utter shit at transit.
Do you realise that it's clean, safe and quick in other parts of the world?
Re: (Score:2)
There are great videos of a first-person view of a tram route in Amsterdam. What immediately strikes me is how little traffic there is on the road and how the few cars on the road can drive totally unimpeded by traffic.
[1]This is how a city should work [youtube.com].
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DaqQkvHeMk
Re: (Score:2)
Amsterdam isn't like that all the time. Sometimes traffic is extremely irritating. The video is early morning.
Re: (Score:2)
If you believed these fools in the early 2000's, by now none of us would have been owning any cars. We would all be summoning robotaxis for our commutes. And here they are driving themselves into floods in spite of remote-control operators in 3rd world countries/