Feds investigate Waymo’s self-driving taxis after collision report

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating Google’s robotaxi subsidiary Waymo after the agency received more than 20 collision reports involving the autonomous vehicles.

The new investigation was announced this week and will be led by the NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation. The probe will evaluate Waymo’s autonomous driving software and determine how well it reacts to typical traffic situations.

The NHTSA opened the investigation after it received 22 reports of incidents where a Waymo autonomous taxi “was the sole vehicle operated during a collision.” The 22 incidents are from over the past three years, with seven occurring in 2024.

The investigation is expected to last approximately eight months.

Waymo said it will continue working with the NHTSA through its investigation and it stands by its safety record. 

“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,” a Waymo spokesperson said.

“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 agency’s investigation into Waymo comes one day after the NHTSA opened a separate investigation into Amazon’s autonomous vehicle subsidiary Zoox. The agency began an investigation Monday after receiving reports that two Zoox vehicles were rear-ended after unexpectedly breaking.

The safety probe could prove challenging for Waymo, which is currently trying to boost public trust in its robotaxis.

Following two high-profile collisions in San Francisco and Phoenix, Waymo launched a massive recall in February. The recall has since been implemented in all of the company’s autonomous vehicles and was intended to improve the safety and reliability of the technology.

Despite the update, recordings of Waymo vehicles breaking traffic laws have popped up at least once a month, further damaging public trust. The NHTSA’s probe cites several cases where Waymo vehicles crash into gates, traffic cones or drive on the wrong side of the street.

While collisions of traffic violations involving Waymo vehicles get a lot of press, the company says they are rare. Waymo says its autonomous vehicles crash nearly seven times fewer than human drivers.