Waymo suspends freeway driving amid safety concerns
On Thursday, Waymo customers opened up the app and noticedsomethingunusual: no more freeway service. Trips that would normally take a few minutes on the freeway were suddenly projected to last much longer via local roads.
The company later confirmed that it had suspended freeway driving across all of its US markets over concerns about construction zones. It had also paused service in Atlanta, Ga., and San Antonio, Tx., over lingering issues regarding flooded roads. The news comes after several of the company’s robotaxis were spotted driving through flooded roads at elevated speeds in Texas, forcing Waymo to issue a software recall for its entire fleet.
The suspensions come as the Alphabet-owned company has sped aggressively into new markets with the goal of reaching 1 million paid rides a week. (It’s currently doing about 500,000 rides a week.) Waymo is also on the cusp of deploying a brand...
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