US safety probe into Waymo self-driving vehicles finds more incidents

WASHINGTON :The National Freeway Web order visitors Security Administration said Friday it has learned of 9 additional incidents that elevate concerns about the performance of Alphabet’s Waymo self-riding autos.

Earlier this month, the U.S. auto safety regulator opened an investigation after 22 stories of its robotaxis exhibiting riding habits that doubtlessly violated web order online web order online visitors safety guidelines, or demonstrating other “surprising habits,” including 17 collisions.

In a letter to Waymo launched Friday, NHTSA said it has learned of 9 additional a similar incidents.

The company said several incidents below investigation “eager collisions with clearly seen objects that a legitimate driver would be expected to steer distinct of.”

NHTSA said “stories consist of collisions with stationary and semi-stationary objects such as gates and chains, collisions

with parked autos, and stipulations wherein the (automatic riding device) gave the impression to disobey web order online web order online visitors safety administration

gadgets or guidelines.”

The company requested Waymo to acknowledge to a series of questions by June 11 about the incidents and present video for all of the incidents.

Waymo, which didn’t straight comment Friday, earlier this month didn’t tackle explicit safety incidents cited by NHTSA but said it used to be “proud of our performance and safety file over tens of thousands and thousands of self sustaining miles driven.”

NHTSA said it is anxious that Waymo self-riding autos “exhibiting such surprising riding behaviors could well well furthermore unbiased expand the likelihood of shatter, property ruin, and ruin” and added that plenty of incidents occurred “within the proximity of other facet toll road users, including pedestrians.”

The investigation is the first stage sooner than the company could well well anticipate a recall if it believes the autos pose an unreasonable likelihood to safety.

Right here is the most contemporary in a series of investigations opened by NHTSA into the performance of self-riding autos after it initiated probes into Overall Motors Cruise and Amazon.com’s Zoox < AMZN.O>.

In February, Waymo recalled 444 self-riding autos after two minor collisions in rapid succession in Arizona, pronouncing a device error could well well reside in automatic autos inaccurately predicting the motion of a towed vehicle.