According to media reports, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced on May 14th that it has initiated an investigation into the performance of Alphabet's subsidiary, Waymo's autonomous driving vehicles, following reports suggesting that the driving behavior of its autonomous taxis may have violated traffic safety laws.
NHTSA stated that it has launched a preliminary assessment of around 444 Waymo vehicles after receiving 22 accident reports, including 17 collision incidents. According to NHTSA, in some of these cases, the autonomous driving systems "appeared not to obey traffic safety control devices."
While Waymo did not comment on specific safety incidents, it expressed pride in its performance and safety record over millions of miles of autonomous driving, as well as its commitment to safety transparency. The company also stated that it would continue to cooperate with NHTSA.
Prior to the investigation into Waymo, NHTSA had also initiated investigations into autonomous driving vehicles from General Motors' subsidiary, Cruise, and Amazon's subsidiary, Zoox.
In February this year, Waymo recalled 444 autonomous vehicles in Arizona following two minor collision incidents, citing software errors that may have caused the vehicles to inaccurately predict the movement trajectory of towed vehicles.
NHTSA stated that among all 22 incidents, some involved collisions with autonomous vehicles, while others suggested that the driving behavior of driverless vehicles may have violated traffic safety laws. These incidents included collisions with fixed and semi-fixed objects (such as gates and chains) as well as with parked vehicles.
NHTSA will investigate the performance of Waymo's fifth-generation autonomous driving system in "the events and similar scenarios identified in this report, and more closely assess the commonalities in these incidents."
If NHTSA determines that these vehicles pose an unreasonable risk to safety, the agency may request a recall of the vehicles. The current investigation is the first stage before any recall, and it will evaluate the performance of Waymo vehicles "in detecting and responding to traffic control devices, as well as in avoiding collisions with stationary and semi-stationary objects and vehicles."
In March this year, Waymo announced that it would begin offering free autonomous taxi services to select members of the public in Los Angeles and San Francisco following government approval for its Waymo One autonomous taxi project in California. Waymo also began offering autonomous driving services to its employees in Austin, Texas, in March, making it the fourth major city for autonomous taxi services after San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.
