Waymo is temporarily halting Atlanta service while its automated driver continues to drive amid flooding

Waymo has now temporarily halted service in two cities because its robo-taxis struggle to handle heavy rain and flooded roads, an issue that actually prompted the company to issue a recall last week.

One of Waymo’s robotaxis was spotted driving through a flooded street in Atlanta, Georgia on Wednesday before it eventually became stuck for about an hour, according to local news reports. Waymo told TechCrunch that the vehicle has been recovered and removed from the scene. Waymo says it has temporarily suspended service in the city, just as it did in San Antonio, Texas, while it finds a solution.

“Safety is Waymo’s top priority, both for our riders and everyone we share the road with,” the company said in a statement. “During a period of heavy rain yesterday in Atlanta, an unmanned Waymo vehicle encountered a flooded road and came to a halt.”

Waymo admitted it had not finished developing a “final remedy” to avoid flooded areas when it issued a recall for its software last week. Instead, the company said it shipped an update to its fleet that places “restrictions at times and in locations where there is a high risk of encountering a flooded high-speed road,” according to documents released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

But even those precautions apparently weren’t enough to prevent Waymo’s robotic car from entering the flooded intersection in Atlanta. Waymo told TechCrunch on Thursday that the storm in Atlanta produced so much rain that flooding occurred before the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning, watch, or advisory. The company’s fleet appears to rely on these official notices to avoid driving into deeper waters.

This isn’t the first time Waymo has struggled to quickly stamp out problematic behavior with its robotaxis. When people started noticing Waymo robo-taxis illegally passing parked school buses last year, the company shipped a fix that was supposed to address the problem — only for its fleet to continue making illegal maneuvers around school buses.

Waymo’s behavior around school buses is at the center of one of two sets of active investigations into the company.

Both NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are looking into this issue. Waymo has already submitted a batch of documents to the NHTSA, all of which have been redacted to the public. On May 15, NHTSA sent a second document request to Waymo because the company’s initial response “required it [NHTSA] Get more data and information.”

The other set of investigations by NHTSA and NTSB involves a Jan. 23 incident in which a Waymo robotaxi struck a child in Santa Monica, California. Waymo said its robo-taxi traveled at about six miles per hour before hitting the child, and that she sustained minor injuries.