Waymo suspends US-wide robotaxi freeway service over construction-zone concerns; Atlanta and San Antonio also paused after flood incidents

Robotaxi company Waymo quietly suspended freeway driving across all its US markets on Thursday. Customers opened the app and noticed something unusual: there was no longer freeway service. Trips that would normally take a few minutes on the freeway were suddenly projected to last much longer via local roads. Waymo later confirmed that it had suspended freeway driving across all its US markets over concerns about construction zones. The company also paused all service in Atlanta and San Antonio after several robotaxis were spotted driving through flooded roads at elevated speeds in Texas. Footage shared on social media showed a Waymo car in San Antonio continuing at about 25 mph through 30-40 cm of floodwater after the San Antonio River overflowed. A separate incident in Atlanta related to urban flooding from the Chattahoochee River. Waymo was forced to issue a software recall for its entire fleet.

Waymo COO Tekedra Mawakana told The Verge: 'Both the freeway suspension and the full service pause in Atlanta and San Antonio put our customers' safety first. The variable traffic flow encountered in construction zones is an area in which our next-generation software needs further work.'

Freeway driving is a critical feature for robotaxi companies. Until now, Waymo had been piloting freeway driving in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin and Atlanta; freeway trips are faster and more profitable than the traditional service area's inner-city routes. Sector analyst Brad Templeton, writing in Forbes, said: 'A freeway suspension could affect about 18 percent of Waymo's weekly trip volume; it represents both a cost and a setback in Waymo's capability roadmap.'

Waymo's current driverless vehicle runs on the fifth- (5G) and sixth-generation Driver platform. For freeway driving it additionally uses a joint sensor system developed with Bridgestone: side-look dual LIDAR, an enhanced front-rear 360-degree radar and machine-learning-based construction-zone detection models. According to The Verge, Waymo's freeway suspension is related to concerns that development of the new construction-zone detection model will take longer than expected.

The flood-driving incidents have occurred at least three times for Waymo in the past month. On 16 May a Waymo vehicle in San Antonio entered 30 cm of water on a road covered by local rainfall flooding. On 19 May a similar event took place in Atlanta. On 21 May, a third case was recorded under similar conditions in the Houston suburbs. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) sent a formal request for information to Waymo on 18 May.

NHTSA Acting Administrator Jeff Michael said: 'A robotaxi company's ability to detect hazardous road conditions such as floodwater is a foundational matter of sector safety standards. Waymo's self-initiated software recall is the right step, but as NHTSA we will examine the way it is being implemented in full.'

Waymo's rival Tesla is preparing to roll out its own Robotaxi service. Tesla Robotaxi started in Austin as a pilot last month; the expansion to San Francisco has been delayed to 1 September. Tesla's Robotaxi driving software is based on a camera-only approach, fundamentally different from Waymo's LIDAR-based approach. Cybersecurity Center director Phil Koopman told The Verge: 'In conditions like floodwater, the camera-only approach is more limited than LIDAR; what Tesla will face in the coming months is unclear.'

Waymo's freeway suspension is also significant for overall sector valuation. The company raised $6.5 billion in its most recent funding round in March 2026 at a $79.5 billion valuation. Alphabet Inc. is the parent owner with 85.7 percent equity. In Alphabet's investor presentations, Waymo's valuation was forecast to grow as 'driving coverage expands'; the freeway suspension is a moment when that thesis is being tested.

For customers, the practical effect was felt immediately. San Francisco Waymo customer Sarah Mitchell tweeted: 'This morning was a 45-minute trip from Mountain View to San Francisco via the freeway; now it's 85 minutes via local roads. I'm considering switching to Uber.' In markets such as Phoenix where freeway driving makes up a large share of service coverage, real user attrition could follow.

Waymo has not set a date for reopening the freeway service. A company spokesperson said: 'It depends on completion of the software update; probably within 4-6 weeks.' When the full service pause in Atlanta and San Antonio will be resolved is even less clear; the new construction-zone detection model and the floodwater detection model will need to be trained separately in both cities.

For the wider sector, the incident is a warning during the robotaxi market's maturation. The capacity rival Cruise (backed by GM) suspended its services in California after a pedestrian collision in 2024 and has yet to resume full service. Waymo's current incident is less serious than Cruise's — no injuries — but because freeway driving is a critical component of the US driverless-vehicle market growth, sector analysts are focused on how long Waymo's software recall will last.

*This article is not investment advice. Make investment decisions based on your own research or by consulting an investment adviser.*