Waymo has hit another bump in the road.
Just days after its robotaxi fleet crumbled into complete disarray because of a city power outage in San Francisco, the company was forced to suspend all rides again in the Bay Area on Thursday in anticipation of a nasty storm, CNBC reported.
Customers received word of the measure via the company’s ride-hailing app.
“Service temporarily paused due to National Weather Service flash flood warning,” a notification read.
While you can hardly fault Waymo for erring on the side of caution, the measure comes as its self-driving cabs’ ability to handle conditions that fall outside its typical programming is being called into question.
The San Francisco incident, for instance, left its robotaxis stranded and helpless on public roads. Footage showed the cabs piling up at intersections, where they appeared confused about what to do without traffic lights to guide them. Rather than taking initiative or moving themselves out of the way, the cabs stayed idling in the middle of the roads, blocking motorists and even other Waymos. One video showed at least five of the cabs stuck in the same intersection. Frightened animals have a fight-or-flight response; Waymos have a stand-dumbfoundedly-in-place response.
Waymo has been offering fully autonomous rides to the public in San Francisco since 2024, with at least 800 robotaxis in the area. And though it boasts an impressive safety record, the cars have been a controversial presence with locals, whose complaints about the vehicles’ safety reached new heights last month when one of the cabs ran over and killed a beloved bodega cat.
Beyond tragedies like those, the cabs have been spotted more than occasionally driving down the wrong side of the road and committing blunders like getting stuck in a roundabout.
Other incidents like careening through an active police standoff and becoming paralyzed by a parade have exposed that the cars still struggle to handle the diversity of offbeat road scenarios one might be expected to encounter in a bustling city like San Francisco. Waymo can’t be blamed for the power outage last week, but that it seemingly didn’t equip its cars to handle a scenario like that is concerning.
“I think we need to be asking ‘what is a reasonable number of [autonomous vehicles] to have on city streets, by time of day, by geography and weather?’” former CEO of San Francisco’s Municipal Transit Authority, Jeffrey Tumlin told CNBC.
More on self-driving cabs: The Number of Robotaxis Tesla Is Actually Running Will Make You Snort Out of Your Nose With Pure Derision