Waymo announced it is pausing its autonomous taxi services on freeways in the U.S. as it adapts its software to enhance its performance around construction zones and flooded roads.
Freeway rides were previously available in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Miami. The company said street and other off-highway Waymo options will continue.
In a statement to Reuters, the company said the temporary pause was to allow them to integrate technical learnings into their software, adding routes should soon resume.
"We are committed to being good neighbors for our riders and our communities. As part of that commitment, we make proactive decisions including temporarily pausing aspects of our service. We know riders count on us to get around, and we appreciate their patience as we work to get them where they're going safely and reliably," a Waymo spokesperson said in an email statement.
While driving on a freeway is relatively less complicated than on a city street – there being fewer variables such as pedestrians and intersections to worry about – the high-speed cars operate at on freeways is thought the most difficult factor.
The company also said it had paused its operations in Atlanta after a robotaxi stopped in flood water on Wednesday.
These suspensions follow Waymo’s decision to recall 3,800 vehicles earlier this month after a software defect led some of the robotaxis to drive into flooded roadways.
They also come at a time when Waymo, a subsidiary of Google-parent Alphabet, has recently increased the pace of its expansion and plans to launch in several new cities around the world, including London this September.
Through these expansions Waymo hopes to outpace rivals Tesla and Zoox, which are yet to near the scale of Waymo.
The company claims to have driven over 170 million autonomous miles, with 13 times fewer injury-causing collisions than human drivers on their routes.
Waymo said it currently provides half a million trips per week but aims for that number to surpass a million by the end of 2026.
The company first used Chrysler Pacifica minivans and now opts for Jaguar I-Pace SUVs, though they have recently been testing with the Chinese Zeekr minivan and are currently integrating Hyundai IONIQ 5s to their fleet.
They did not point to any specific incident which prompted this recent recall, however the company has been forced to pause operations to implement software changes in several states, including Texas, Tennessee and Georgia.
In 2025, Waymo recalled more than 1,200 cars for a software defect causing minor crashes.
Earlier this year, the company faced particular scrutiny after a Waymo hit a child outside a school in Santa Monica, California, and ran over a cat in San Francisco.
