‘Barron’s Roundtable’ panelists focus on the expansion of autonomous ride-shares and what Waymo’s success means for the business.
Waymo is briefly halting freeway operations for its robotaxi service in a number of U.S. markets as the corporate works to deal with efficiency points in building zones, FOX Enterprise has discovered.
The Alphabet-owned firm confirmed Thursday that it was pausing freeway operations whereas updating its software program.
“Security is Waymo’s high precedence, each for our riders and everybody we share the highway with,” a Waymo spokesperson mentioned in an announcement to FOX Enterprise. “We now have briefly paused freeway operations, as we work to combine latest technical learnings into our software program and anticipate to renew these routes quickly.”
Waymo mentioned the pause impacts solely freeway driving and that floor road operations stay lively.
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A Waymo car drives with site visitors on Dec. 27, 2025. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune Information Service through Getty Photos / Getty Photos)
The corporate mentioned its autos navigate building zones greater than 10,000 occasions per day and that it’s utilizing the pause to enhance robotaxi efficiency on freeways.
The announcement comes after Waymo paused operations in Atlanta following flash-flooding incidents, whereas individually working to enhance efficiency round building zones and flooded roadways.
That pause adopted stories of Waymo autos encountering floodwater in Atlanta on Wednesday; AJC reported one car required restoration, whereas Waymo mentioned a handful of others had been briefly waylaid.
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A Waymo autonomous taxi on Bush Road in San Francisco, California, US, on Dec. 17, 2025. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg through Getty Photos / Getty Photos)
The transfer additionally comes after Waymo filed a recall protecting 3,791 autos outfitted with fifth- and sixth-generation Automated Driving Techniques over a flooding-related software program subject that NHTSA mentioned may lead to lack of car management.
The recall adopted an April 20 incident through which an unoccupied Waymo car detected a doubtlessly untraversable flooded part of a roadway with a 40 mph velocity restrict and proceeded at lowered velocity, in response to NHTSA.
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| GOOG | ALPHABET INC. | 383.47 | -1.43 | -0.37% |
The NHTSA report discovered that when a Waymo robotaxi approaches standing water on higher-speed roads, it could decelerate however fail to totally cease after detecting the hazard.
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Waymo car approaching the curb to select up a passenger on February 19, 2026. (Smith Assortment/Gado/Getty Photos / Getty Photos)
Almost 3,800 autos outfitted with the corporate’s fifth and sixth-generation Automated Driving Techniques (ADS) had been recalled. Regulators estimated the defect fee at 100%.
In response to NHTSA, Waymo utilized an interim treatment to all affected autos on April 20, modifying the accepted scope of operation of its ADS to exclude further situations that current an elevated threat of encountering a flooded, higher-speed roadway. Waymo continues to be creating a last treatment.
Waymo operates 1000’s of autos throughout the U.S., together with in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin.
FOX Enterprise’ Bonny Chu and Reuters contributed to this report.
