NHTSA adds incidents to Waymo preliminary investigation

The top US security agency has expanded its preliminary investigation into Waymo’s self-driving software after first reporting an investigation into the company earlier this month.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) sent Waymo a letter on Thursday informing the company of additional incidents related to the investigation into Alphabet’s fifth-generation automated driving system (ADS). In the letter, NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) wrote that it had added nine more incidents to the 22 listed in the original announcement, as seen in videos posted online.

Traffic incidents in both cases included instances where Waymo’s Jaguar I-Pace self-driving units disregarded traffic laws or drove into stationary objects. The investigation looks specifically at Waymo’s 5th generation software and will help the agency decide whether it needs to intensify the investigation.

“ODI is concerned that ADS-equipped vehicles exhibiting such unexpected driving behavior may increase the risk of accidents, property damage and injuries,” the agency wrote in the letter. “Although this agency is not aware of any allegations of injuries, several of the incidents involved collisions with clearly visible objects that a competent driver should be able to avoid.”

“A number of these incidents also occurred near other road users, including pedestrians.”

Waymo must submit responses to the agency’s numbered questions regarding its Gen 5 Waymo software by June 11, 2024.

The agency observed the listed incidents on several social media platforms, most of which involved either the company’s robotaxis colliding with stationary objects or committing other traffic violations in a manner that would be particularly easy for a human driver to handle.

The NHTSA letter to Waymo announcing the additional incidents can be found here.

Waymo received approval in March to expand its driverless testing to more parts of the Bay Area and Los Angeles, but the decision was immediately protested by five different municipalities and organizations. Waymo’s operations could also be threatened by a bill proposed in January that could give individual municipalities, cities and counties more power to decide where and how driverless vehicles can be deployed, if at all.

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