Waymo safety – Waymo has filed its fourth safety recall since February 2024 after its driverless cars entered closed freeway-construction zones, sometimes at highway speed. The filing with the NHTSA on June 17 says 3,871 vehicles running Waymo’s 5th Generation automated driv
The moment a driverless car slips past construction signage, the stakes aren’t theoretical. They’re measured in speed, lane closures, and the thin margin between a carefully mapped route and a dangerous work zone.
Waymo has now taken that risk seriously enough to file its fourth safety recall since February 2024. after its robotaxis were caught entering closed freeway-construction zones. The recall was filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on June 17. and it appears to cover Waymo’s entire US fleet running its 5th Generation automated driving system.
In the NHTSA filing. Waymo states the problem may affect 3. 871 vehicles and that NHTSA estimates 100 percent of the affected units carry the defect. The fault is described as follows: “under certain circumstances. the AV may enter and drive at speed in freeway-construction zones due to inappropriately prioritizing the avoidance of other freeway hazards and/or failing to recognize the construction zone.”.
Waymo’s highway rides began in late 2025. and the company’s description points to a system that sometimes gets pulled in the wrong direction. The filing says the ADS can fail to recognize construction zones. In other cases, it may actively choose to drive through them because it is busy avoiding other freeway hazards. The result can still be the same: a driverless car at highway speed moving through a closed work zone.
The events that triggered this recall played out in two clusters earlier this year. On April 11 and April 19, Waymo vehicles in Phoenix drove past ramp closure signs and into preplanned construction zones. After that, Waymo’s Field Safety Committee responded by restricting freeway operations.
The second cluster landed in the San Francisco Bay Area. On May 18, seven Waymo vehicles drove between construction cones into active lane closures. No collisions or injuries were reported from these incidents. But it was the broader pattern around that second set of events that led to a change in how far Waymo would allow freeway driving.
After reviewing the issue, Waymo’s Safety Board met on June 1. On June 8, the company decided to issue a formal recall.
In a statement emailed to WIRED. Waymo said: “Waymo’s mission is to be the world’s most trusted driver. and the data shows that we’re making roads safer in the communities in which we operate. We identified an area of improvement regarding performance around freeway construction zones. We voluntarily restricted freeway operations last month while making improvements. proactively notified state and federal regulators. and decided to file a voluntary software recall with NHTSA.”.
There is one key complication: the software fix isn’t ready yet. The NHTSA filing says a permanent remedy is “currently under development.” For now, Waymo’s interim response is stark. The company says it is restricting all its vehicles from entering freeways entirely.
That is a meaningful operational shift for a company that had previously offered freeway rides in San Francisco. Los Angeles. Phoenix. and Miami. Waymo also doesn’t have the usual owner-notification challenge. Because it owns every vehicle in its fleet, there are no owners to notify. When the update is ready, the fix will be delivered as an over-the-air ADS software update.
The recall arrives amid a run of safety interventions. It is the fourth time in roughly 28 months that Waymo has had to issue a safety recall. In May 2025. Waymo recalled 1. 212 robotaxis after collisions with stationary roadway barriers. following a NHTSA preliminary evaluation that cited at least seven incidents between December 2022 and April 2024. And in May this year. Waymo recalled 3. 791 vehicles after a robotaxi drove into a flooded. impassable road in San Antonio and was swept into a creek.
This latest recall does not affect Waymo’s newest 6th Generation vehicles, and Waymo says its cars will continue to operate on surface streets in the US.
For passengers and regulators watching the tradeoffs of autonomy. this is the central tension of the update: the system can be safer in many situations. yet when it comes to freeway construction zones—where the road is literally changing hour by hour—its decision-making can still point vehicles in the wrong direction.
Waymo robotaxis NHTSA safety recall freeway construction zones automated driving system ADS software update Phoenix San Francisco Bay Area over-the-air update cybersecurity and safety