Waymo has filed a voluntary recall discover with federal car security regulators for software program that was beforehand used of their driverless vehicles, the corporate introduced Tuesday, marking a primary for Alphabet‘s self-driving car unit.

In an organization weblog publish Tuesday, Waymo stated the corporate selected to do the voluntary recall after consulting with the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration and its inner evaluation of two incidents which passed off in Phoenix on Dec. 11, 2023, by which two robotaxis crashed into the identical towed pickup truck inside minutes of one another.

The NHTSA didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

The 2 collisions involving their robotaxis resulted in solely minor car injury and no accidents, Waymo stated within the publish. No passengers had been within the autos, in response to the publish.

Waymo spokesperson Katherine Barna stated Waymo’s automated driving system, or ADS, incorrectly predicted the “future movement of a towed car,” and the corporate’s voluntary recall included updating its software program to handle this difficulty. The corporate up to date the software program when the vehicles had been returned to Waymo depots for normal upkeep and recharging, not over-the-air or by means of distant software program updates, Barna added.

The software program updates had been accomplished by Jan. 12 and didn’t interrupt Waymo’s ride-hailing service, Barna stated.

Waymo at the moment operates its driverless ride-hailing service Waymo One in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin. The corporate has roughly 700 autos whole within the Waymo One fleet, with a pair hundred vehicles in every of its absolutely autonomous Waymo One service areas, Barna said.

In latest months, some public backlash has arisen over driverless autos and the way they’re being examined and rolled out on public roads, following collisions and issues over the affect of automation on drivers’ jobs.

Waymo has typically confronted the least of public criticism, owing partially to its public affairs communications with businesses like NHTSA and native first responders. Waymo says it has pushed 10 million absolutely autonomous miles and served over a million ride-hail journeys.

Nevertheless, within the fourth-quarter of 2023, the California Division of Motor Autos suspended the deployment and testing permits it had beforehand issued to Waymo competitor Cruise, which is owned by GM.

The revocation of these licenses adopted an Oct. 2, 2023 incident by which a pedestrian in San Francisco was dragged 20 toes by a Cruise robotaxi after first being struck by a separate, human-driven car.

One other would-be Waymo competitor, Tesla, has but to ship an automatic driving system (ADS) or robotaxi though CEO Elon Musk promised {that a} self-driving Tesla would be capable of navigate throughout the U.S. with none human interventions by the tip of 2017. As an alternative, Tesla sells superior driver help methods that it markets as “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving” choices.

The California DMV has filed formal accusations in opposition to Tesla saying that the corporate’s advertising and marketing and promoting is misleading.

Final week, a driverless Waymo automobile collided with a bike owner in San Francisco, inflicting minor accidents and the incident is now being reviewed by the state’s auto regulator.

In a separate incident, unknown events set a Waymo car ablaze on Saturday in San Francisco’s Chinatown throughout Lunar New Yr celebrations. No group has but claimed accountability for the destruction of the Waymo automobile. Authorities are investigating who the accountable events are, in response to stories by NBC Bay Space.