A Waymo autonomous robotaxi vehicle mistakenly drove into a flooded road in Texas and ended up submerged in a creek.
Due to this software error, Waymo company has had to urgently recall nearly 3,800 of its vehicles across the United States.
The car continued driving normally without detecting the risk of flooding, which highlighted a weakness in the technology.
Waymo, owned by Google's parent company Alphabet, is currently a leading service provider offering over 500,000 rides per week.
However, during severe weather conditions like this, the cars cannot make correct decisions, so the software division is currently implementing restrictions to prevent travel to flood-prone areas in the near term.
This security challenge has emerged just as the company was preparing to expand its services to major cities like London.
Tech experts say that autonomous driving systems still have limitations, and how to handle unexpected dangers when driving without passengers remains a key question to be asked.
For Waymo, this has been a lesson for the AI car industry, as the company will only be able to resume suspended services after rapidly upgrading its software.
Ref: BBC
