{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0531","record_version":1,"title":"Waymo robotaxis drive into flooded roads, prompting recall and service pauses in five US cities","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":56.7,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":15.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":3.0,"completeness":4.8,"unhedged_language":5.0},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true,"record_integrity":true,"eligible":true,"about_this_case":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-10-18.7","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-11-01","extraction_run_id":null,"evidence_level":{"level":"preliminary","reason":"1 report: Tech Times · subject to change","original_document":null,"reports_total":2,"reports_independent":1,"reports_derivative":0,"developing":false,"disputed":false,"rules_version":"evidence-2026-10-29.1","computed_at":"2026-11-01","history":[{"date":"2026-11-01","from_level":null,"to_level":"preliminary","reason":"1 report: Tech Times · subject to change"}]},"sources_hash":"67ca59797f080733ea4912f4ddcf756eec02d6b2748167fa5d2aba6091af9646"},"system":{"model_name":null,"model_version":null,"developer":"Waymo","harness":null,"tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":null,"autonomy_level":"unknown","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"production","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":"production","integration_type":null,"intended_use":null,"safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":null,"date_disclosed":"2026-05-22","incident_class":"physical_safety","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":true,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"unknown","summary":"Waymo operates driverless robotaxis in US cities, and in April one of its unoccupied vehicles in San Antonio drove into a flooded road and was swept into a creek; no one was injured. Waymo recalled the 3,791 vehicles in its fleet and shipped an over-the-air update restricting operation where flooding risk is elevated. Another unoccupied robotaxi was later reported trapped in flood water in Atlanta. Waymo then suspended service in five cities, and the company said it still had no permanent fix and was working on additional software safeguards. No timeline for a permanent fix or for resuming service was given.","tags":[],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":null,"root_cause_detail":"Decision architecture: software registered the floodwater hazard and slowed rather than halting, as no hard-stop condition existed for water on a 40 mph road","failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":null,"adversarial_actor":null,"input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":null,"primary_risk":"RK18"},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"moderate","severity_because":"Moderate tier: service and riders touched in a bounded scope of five stated cities, with a recall of 3,791 vehicles; no count of affected third parties or regulator-involved compromise is stated","harm_class":["operational"],"affected_description":null,"protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":[],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgplyxxl75o","publisher":"BBC","date":"2026-05-22","type":"press","title":"Waymo pauses robotaxis in four Texas cities and Atlanta over flooded road risk - BBC","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report"},{"url":"https://www.techtimes.com/articles/317003/20260522/waymo-halts-service-five-cities-flood-patch-fails-weeks-after-recall-permanent-fix-missing.htm","publisher":"Tech Times","date":"2026-05-22","type":"press","title":"Waymo Halts Service in Five Cities: Flood Patch Fails Weeks After Recall, Permanent Fix Missing - Tech Times","archived_url":null,"independence":"independent"}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.developer":"C","system.deployment_context":"C","system.lifecycle_stage":"C","event.incident_class":"C","event.agent_involved":"C","event.root_cause_detail":"C","impact.harm_class":"C","context.country":"C","context.industry":"C","impact.severity":"D","impact.severity_because":"D","event.primary_risk":"D","event.summary":"C","system.autonomy_level":"D","event.trigger":"D","event.detection_method":"D","event.date_disclosed":"D","context.denominator_available":"D"},"field_citations":{"system.developer":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Waymo has now paused its self-driving car service in five US cities, in response to a software issue which has seen some vehicles enter flooded roads and get stuck."}],"system.deployment_context":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Waymo has now paused its self-driving car service in five US cities, in response to a software issue which has seen some vehicles enter flooded roads and get stuck."}],"system.lifecycle_stage":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Waymo has now paused its self-driving car service in five US cities, in response to a software issue which has seen some vehicles enter flooded roads and get stuck."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The software problem, which could allow vehicles \"to slow and then drive into standing water on higher speed roadways\" was highlighted in a letter posted on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website earlier this month."}],"event.agent_involved":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The software problem, which could allow vehicles \"to slow and then drive into standing water on higher speed roadways\" was highlighted in a letter posted on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website earlier this month."}],"event.root_cause_detail":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"The San Antonio incident made clear the problem is not just recognition — the system detected the floodwater — but decision architecture: the vehicle's software registered the hazard and reduced speed rather than halting, because on a 40 mph road there was no hard-stop condition for water in its path."}],"impact.harm_class":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"Waymo halted service in Atlanta, Dallas, and Houston as severe weather swept through the region on May 21, with San Antonio already suspended since late April following a separate incident in which an unoccupied vehicle was washed into a creek; Austin was also paused as a precaution."}],"context.country":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Waymo has now paused its self-driving car service in five US cities, in response to a software issue which has seen some vehicles enter flooded roads and get stuck."}],"context.industry":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"Waymo's vehicles use a combination of LiDAR, radar, and cameras — the most sensor-rich commercial autonomous vehicle stack in regular public operation."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"The company acknowledged it still has no permanent fix for the problem, meaning the most commercially advanced robotaxi fleet in the world cannot reliably operate during heavy rain, and riders in five markets have no recourse when storms arrive."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"The company acknowledged it still has no permanent fix for the problem, meaning the most commercially advanced robotaxi fleet in the world cannot reliably operate during heavy rain, and riders in five markets have no recourse when storms arrive."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"On April 20, a Waymo robotaxi in San Antonio encountered a flooded section of road on a 40 mph corridor, slowed but did not stop, and was swept into Salado Creek."},{"source_index":1,"quote":"No one was injured, but the event triggered a voluntary recall filed with the NHTSA covering 3,791 vehicles equipped with Waymo's fifth- and sixth-generation autonomous driving systems — the company's entire commercial fleet."},{"source_index":1,"quote":"Waymo shipped an over-the-air software update that placed, in the language of NHTSA recall documents, \"restrictions at times and in locations where there is an elevated risk of encountering a flooded, higher-speed roadway.\""},{"source_index":0,"quote":"On Wednesday an unoccupied Waymo robotaxi was reported trapped in flood water on a road in Atlanta."},{"source_index":1,"quote":"Waymo suspended robotaxi service across five cities on May 21, 2026, after a software patch it pushed to its entire 3,791-vehicle fleet less than two weeks earlier failed to prevent another autonomous vehicle from driving into standing water — this time in Atlanta, where the car stalled in a flooded Midtown street for approximately an hour before it could be recovered."},{"source_index":1,"quote":"The company did not provide a timeline for when a permanent fix would be available or when service would resume in the suspended cities."}]},"notes_on_gaps":"No model name, version, harness, tools, permissions or guardrail details are stated; the sources describe a robotaxi driving system without naming an AI model. The exact date of the San Antonio incident has no year in the source and the Atlanta incident is given only as Wednesday, so no date_occurred is recorded. Root cause is not stated as a category; root_cause is left out and root_cause_detail records the decision-architecture finding. Trigger, detection method, responsible party, adversarial actor, duration, time to contain and loss amounts are not stated. Severity tier moderate is my judgement from the bounded five-city scope. The E3 control (fail-closed defaults) is my mapping of the missing hard-stop condition, and the patch is mapped to E3 as an interim restriction, which is a judgement. No failure_class is recorded because no listed failure mode clearly fits a software flood-navigation fault. Waymo's reliance on NWS alerts is reported but not mapped to a listed control. [case created by the backfill: read by claude-haiku-5-5, backfill-2026-11-01.2, 2026-11-01; not yet reviewed] [2026-11-01: evidence level set: Preliminary (1 report: Tech Times · subject to change)]"},"context":{"industry":"transportation","org_size_band":null,"country":"US","denominator_available":false,"denominator":null,"related_incident_ids":[],"systemic_exposure":null,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":null,"regulatory":null,"coverage":null},"analysis":{"sections":{"timeline":[{"text":"Waymo issues voluntary recall of nearly 3,800 robotaxis and says it is working on additional software safeguards","quote":"In response, Waymo issued a voluntary recall of nearly 3,800 of its robotaxis that use the company's fifth and sixth-generation automated driving systems, and said it was working on \"additional software safeguards\".","source_index":0,"when":null},{"text":"Unoccupied Waymo robotaxi reported trapped in flood water on a road in Atlanta","quote":"On Wednesday an unoccupied Waymo robotaxi was reported trapped in flood water on a road in Atlanta.","source_index":0,"when":"Wednesday"},{"text":"Waymo suspends robotaxi service in five cities","quote":"Waymo suspended robotaxi service across five cities on May 21, 2026, after a software patch it pushed to its entire 3,791-vehicle fleet less than two weeks earlier failed to prevent another autonomous vehicle from driving into standing water — this time in Atlanta, where the car stalled in a flooded Midtown street for approximately an hour before it could be recovered.","source_index":1,"when":"2026-05-21"},{"text":"Company gives no timeline for a permanent fix or for resuming service in suspended cities","quote":"The company did not provide a timeline for when a permanent fix would be available or when service would resume in the suspended cities.","source_index":1,"when":null}]},"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgplyxxl75o","https://www.techtimes.com/articles/317003/20260522/waymo-halts-service-five-cities-flood-patch-fails-weeks-after-recall-permanent-fix-missing.htm"]}}