(VitalNews.org) – The United States government’s highway safety agency has opened an investigation into Waymo’s self-driving vehicles.
The National Highway Safety Administration posted documents after receiving over twenty reports regarding Waymo vehicles crashing or violating traffic laws. The agency, within just the last month, has opened four investigations of vehicles that operate with self-driving features since these functions have been causing problems.
Waymo, which used to be Google’s self-driving vehicle unit, had seventeen reports of crashes and five other reports of traffic violations. In the crashes, the vehicle hit stationary objects such as chains, parked vehicles, or gates.
Waymo has said that the National Highway Safety Administration would continue to work with them on their mission “to become the world’s most trusted driver.” The company stated that they make over fifty thousand weekly trips with riders.
Waymo also stated, “We are proud of our performance and safety record over tens of millions of autonomous miles driven, as well as our demonstrated commitment to safety transparency.”
The company has been operating robotaxis without human drivers in California and Arizona. The NHTSA has been criticized in the past for “moving slow” in relation to regulating Tesla, but the investigations in this case were prompt.
The executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, Michael Brooks, said, “Ultimately I think it’s a good thing here that they’re taking these steps, trying to figure out why these vehicles are acting the way they are.”
They said that they would investigate the twenty-two incidents that involve Waymo’s fifth-generation driving system in response to “more closely assess any commonalities in these incidents.”
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