Waymo has recalled its fleet of nearly 4,000 automated vehicles to restrict them from driving on highways, according to TechCrunch. This was done as the company is figuring out how to make the vehicles behave around construction zones.
This comes as Waymo identified at least 13 instances of its robotaxis driving into highway sections that were closed for construction. Six of these happened in Phoenix, Arizona in April, and seven occurred in San Francisco, California in May.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the fifth-generation automated driving system at the heart of the recall could, in some situations, speed into active freeway construction zones either because it failed to detect closure signs or because it prioritized steering clear of other hazards on the road.
“We identified an area of improvement regarding performance around freeway construction zones,” the company said in a statement to TechCrunch. “We voluntarily restricted freeway operations last month while making improvements, proactively notified state and federal regulators, and decided to file a voluntary software recall with NHTSA.”
Read: Waymo plans self-driving tech for personal cars as weekly paid rides hit 500,000 (March 30, 2026)
This is Waymo’s sixth recall. In May, the company recalled its robotaxis after they drove into flooded roads, and in December 2025, Waymo issued another recall to address its vehicles’ illegal behavior around school buses. Previously, the robotaxi company had issued recalls to fix low-speed collisions with chains and gates and telephone poles, and to solve a problem regarding towed trucks.
The NHTSA and National Transportation Safety Board are currently investigating Waymo regarding its behavior around school buses after one of its robotaxis struck a child near a school in January. The incident on Jan. 23 occurred during the morning drop-off period within a couple of blocks of the school, NHTSA said in a statement. The child ran unexpectedly into the street from behind a double-parked SUV and made contact with the robotaxi as it moved toward the campus.
Alphabet-owned Waymo says its vehicles have driven more than 170 million miles autonomously, and claims they have demonstrated a 13 times increased reduction in serious-injury-or-worse crashes when compared to human drivers.
Read: Waymo autonomous vehicle strikes child in California; safety review underway (January 30, 2026)
Waymo is currently in the middle of a massive expansion, planning to launch in more than 20 cities this year alone, including in London and Tokyo. This expansion has highlighted edge cases that the robotaxi company has struggled with, which now includes highway construction zones.
Waymo told the NHTSA that its robotaxis “did not recognize and drove past ramp closure signs into pre-planned freeway construction zones” in mid-April in Phoenix. After a review, the company’s “Field Safety Committee” restricted freeway operations in the city while Waymo worked on a fix, the NHTSA documents show.
On May 18, seven Waymo robotaxis drove into highway lanes under active construction in the San Francisco Bay Area because the company’s software was “prioritizing the avoidance of other freeway hazards and/or failing to recognize the construction zone.” The company suspended all freeway driving the following day, and Waymo’s safety board decided to issue the recall on June 8.