Waymo has recalled 3,871 robotaxis after its vehicles were found entering closed freeway construction zones at speed, marking the second recall in just over a month for Alphabet’s autonomous driving unit. More than a dozen incidents occurred across California and Arizona from early April, in which Waymo vehicles either failed to recognise construction zone closures or actively drove through them while prioritising the avoidance of other freeway hazards. 

A permanent software fix has not yet been developed, but as an interim measure Waymo has temporarily restricted all fleet vehicles from freeway operations entirely. The recall covers vehicles running Waymo’s fifth-generation automated driving system—in other words, the recently-launched Zeekr-based Ojai vehicles are unaffected. 

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) filing notes that the underlying fault involves a failure of priority logic: in some cases the system did not detect the zone at all, and in others it detected it but chose to proceed because it was occupied managing other hazards. The first cluster of incidents occurred on 11 and 19 April in Phoenix, and a second cluster occurred in the San Francisco Bay Area on 18 May. In the latter, seven vehicles drove between construction cones into active lane closures. This prompted the company to restrict freeway operations and convene a formal Safety Board review. 

Only Waymo’s Gen 5 fleet of modified Jaguar I-Pace vehicles are affected

The 3,871-unit figure is significant beyond the immediate safety question. As with Waymo’s 3,791-unit recall in May, which was triggered by a robotaxi driving into a flooded, impassable road in San Antonio, NHTSA requires manufacturers to disclose the total number of units affected. Because Waymo’s fleet mostly runs a unified software stack, a software recall effectively constitutes a near-full fleet count. Gen 6 Ojai vehicles are not affected by this recall, meaning the 3,871 figure represents the fifth-generation fleet alone, meaning the full fleet size now likely hovers around, or slightly exceeds, 4,000.

The recall marks Waymo’s fourth in roughly two years. A May 2025 recall covered collisions with stationary roadway barriers across 16 incidents, and a subsequent recall in December of the same year recall followed more than two dozen documented incidents of robotaxis illegally passing stopped school buses in Austin. The May 2026 flood recall covered the San Antonio impassable-road incident. Separately, NHTSA has an open investigation following a January 2026 collision with a child near a Santa Monica elementary school.

The freeway restriction imposed as an interim measure is significant given it was only several months ago that Waymo expanded its service to cover freeways. Removing that capability while a fix is developed reduces the service’s commercial scope in all four of the cities where it was available; it also hands its growing cohort of rivals a valid criticism ahead of planned launches in London—its first overseas deployment—Denver, and other US cities later this year. 

Waymo has said the software remedy for the construction zone issue is under development and will be deployed as an over-the-air update. Because Waymo owns every vehicle in its fleet, no owner notification process will be required.