Waymo is the latest company to be investigated for autonomous or semi-automated technology

DETROIT | The U.S. government’s Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened another investigation into automated driving systems, this time into accidents involving Waymo self-driving vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration posted documents detailing the investigation on its website early Tuesday after receiving 22 reports of Waymo vehicles crashing or something that may have violated traffic laws.

In the past month, the agency has opened at least four investigations into vehicles that either drive themselves or can perform at least some driving functions, as it appears to become increasingly aggressive in regulating the devices.

In its investigation of Waymo, the former Google self-driving vehicle division, the agency said it had reports of 17 accidents and five other reports of possible traffic law violations. No injuries were reported.

In the accidents, the Waymo vehicles collided with stationary objects such as gates, chains or parked vehicles. According to the documents, some of the incidents occurred shortly after the Waymo ride system began behaving unexpectedly near traffic control devices.

Waymo said NHTSA plays an important role in road safety and will continue to work with the agency “as part of our mission to become the most trusted driver in the world.”

The company said it conducts over 50,000 rides weekly with drivers in demanding environments. “We are proud of our performance and safety record across tens of millions of autonomous miles driven, as well as our proven commitment to safety transparency,” the statement said.

Waymo, based in Mountain View, California, operates robotaxis without human safety drivers in Arizona and California.

Michael Brooks, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, said NHTSA’s more aggressive actions show that autonomous vehicles may not yet be ready for public roads.

The agency’s only enforcement authority regarding autonomous vehicles currently is to initiate investigations and seek recalls, which it does, Brooks said. NHTSA has been criticized in the past for being slow to regulate Tesla and other companies that offer automated driving systems, but Brooks said things appear to have changed.

“Ultimately, I think it’s a good thing that they’re taking these steps and trying to figure out why these vehicles are behaving the way they are,” Brooks said.

NHTSA said it will examine the 22 incidents involving Waymo’s fifth-generation driving system, as well as similar scenarios, “to further assess any commonalities in these incidents.”

The agency said it believes Waymo’s automated driving system was activated in each incident or that, in some cases involving a test vehicle, a human driver deactivated the system shortly before the crash.

The probe will evaluate the system’s performance in detecting and responding to traffic control devices and in preventing accidents involving stationary and semi-stationary objects and vehicles, the documents said.

Since the end of April, the NHTSA has initiated investigations into collisions with self-driving vehicles from the Amazon group Zoox and partially automated driver assistance systems from Tesla and Ford.

In 2021, the agency required all companies with self-driving vehicles or partially automated systems to report all accidents to the government. The investigations rely heavily on data reported by automakers under this order.

NHTSA is also investigating General Motors’ Cruise autonomous vehicle unit after reports that the vehicles may not have exercised appropriate caution around pedestrians. Cruise recalled its cars to update software after one of them dragged a pedestrian to the side of a road in San Francisco in early October.

The agency has also questioned whether a recall last year of Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistance system was effective enough to ensure human drivers were paying attention. NHTSA said it ultimately found 467 accidents involving Autopilot, resulting in 54 injuries and 14 deaths.

As part of the Ford investigation, the agency is investigating two overnight highway crashes that killed three people.

The agency also urged Tesla last year to recall its “Full Self Driving” system because it can misbehave at intersections and doesn’t always follow speed limits.

Despite their names, neither Tesla’s Autopilot nor its “Full Self Driving” systems can control vehicles themselves, and the company says human drivers must be ready to intervene at any time.

Additionally, NHTSA has established performance standards for automatic emergency braking systems that require rapid braking to avoid pedestrians and other vehicles.

The standards are based on other research into automatic braking systems from Tesla, Honda and Fisker, as they can brake for no reason, increasing the risk of a crash.

In a 2022 interview, then-NHTSA Administrator Steven Cliff said the agency would increase testing of automated vehicles, and the agency had recently taken additional action. NHTSA has not had a Senate-confirmed administrator since Cliff moved to the California Air Resources board in August 2022.

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