Waymo, the self-driving car unit under Google’s parent company Alphabet, is under investigation by a federal regulator over reports of nearly two dozen incidents involving Waymo vehicles using an autonomous driving system, the government said Tuesday.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Office of Defects Investigation opened the investigation after receiving reports of 22 incidents involving Waymo vehicles equipped with Waymo’s fifth generation automated driving system that were “the sole vehicle operated during a collision” or that “violated traffic safety laws,” the regulator said in the investigation announcement.
Reported incidents included collisions with stationary and semi-stationary objects — including gates and chains — and parked vehicles. Other incidents included a collision “shortly after” the autonomous driving system “exhibited unexpected behavior near traffic safety control devices.
Other incidents, including vehicles driving in opposing lanes with oncoming traffic or entering construction zones, were identified by publicly available reports, according to the regulator.
The investigation will evaluate the automated driving systems’ performance in detecting and responding to traffic control devices and in avoiding collisions.
A Waymo spokesperson defended the company’s safety and performance in a statement about the investigation.
“At Waymo we currently serve over 50 thousand weekly trips for our riders in some of the most challenging and complex environments. We are proud of our performance and safety record over tens of millions of autonomous miles driven, as well as our demonstrated commitment to safety transparency. NHTSA plays a very important role in road safety and we will continue to work with them as part of our mission to become the world’s most trusted driver,” the spokesperson said.
The NHTSA has also opened investigations into other self-driving car units, including General Motors’s Cruise, Amazon’s Zoox, and Tesla.