Waymo under scrutiny over 'unexpected behaviour' of self-driving vehicles

On Tuesday, U.S. auto safety regulators revealed that they have initiated an investigation into the operations of Alphabet's Waymo self-driving vehicles after reports of its robotaxis displayed compromised driving behaviour that potentially violated traffic safety laws.

The preliminary evaluation into approximately 444 Waymo vehicles by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) follows 22 reports of 22 incidents including 17 collisions.

The agency noted that in some of those cases the automated driving systems "appeared to disobey traffic safety control devices" while some crashes took place shortly after the automated driving systems "exhibited unexpected behaviour near traffic safety control devices."

This comes to the forefront in a series of investigations recently opened by NHTSA into the performance of self-driving vehicles after it initiated probes into General Motors Cruise and Amazon.com's Zoox.

Waymo recalled 444 self-driving vehicles in February after two minor collisions occurred in quick succession in Arizona. The company said that a software error could inadvertently result in automated vehicles inaccurately predicting the movement of a towed vehicle.

According to NHTSA, all 22 incidents included either self-driving crashes or driverless vehicles that displayed driving behaviour that potentially violated traffic safety laws. The mentioned incidents include collisions with stationary and semi-stationary entities such as gates and chains and crashes with parked vehicles.

The NHTSA also cited incidents "such as vehicles driving in opposing lanes with nearby oncoming traffic or entering construction zones."

The agency is all set to investigate the Waymo 5th Generation automated driving system performance "in the incidents identified in this resume and similar scenarios, as well as to more closely assess any commonalities in these incidents."

The investigation is the first step before the agency could demand a recall if it is convinced that the vehicles pose a risk to safety. After this it will evaluate Waymo vehicles’ performance "in detecting and responding to traffic control devices and in avoiding collisions with stationary and semi-stationary objects and vehicles."

In March, Waymo said that it was starting to offer free-of-cost driverless robotaxi services to select members of the public in Los Angeles after receiving approval from a state agency to start its ride-hailing program, Waymo One, in Los Angeles and a few cities near San Francisco.