Waymo is recalling the software in its self-driving vehicles after two of its cars ran into a tow truck.

In a statement on the company’s website, the company said it had voluntarily issued the recall with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration following “two incidents that occurred in a rare scenario in Phoenix” last December.

What You Need To Know

  • The self-driving car company, Waymo, issued a voluntary recall of its software on Tuesday

  • It was prompted by a pair of incidents in Phoenix last December 

  • Two Waymo self-driving cars ran into the same tow truck hauling a pickup truck

  • Waymo has already completed the software update to address the issue that caused the incidents

“This voluntary recall reflects how seriously we take our responsibility to safely deploy our technology and to transparently communicate with the public,” Waymo chief safety officer Mauricio Pena said in a statement Tuesday.

The recall comes one week after a Waymo One autonomous vehicle struck a bicyclist in San Francisco and three days after another Waymo AV was torched in San Francisco, reflecting consumer unease with the technology. General Motors’ autonomous car company, Cruise, ceased operating its ride hail service in San Francisco after a crash in October last year that left a pedestrian with serious injuries.

The incidents that prompted the Waymo recall occurred in Phoenix on December 11, when one of its self-driving cars “made contact with a backwards-facing pickup truck being improperly towed ahead of the Waymo vehicle such that the pickup truck was persistently angled across a center turn lane and a traffic lane,” according to Waymo.

After the first Waymo vehicle made contact with the tow truck and the pickup it was hauling, a second Waymo vehicle ran into it the same way.

The incidents resulted in minor damage to the vehicles and no personal injuries because neither AV was carrying passengers.

Waymo’s analysis determined that its autonomous vehicles had incorrectly predicted how the tow truck and pickup truck were going to move. The company designed new software to address the problem.

Waymo said it began updating the software in its fleet of 700 self-driving cars nine days after the incidents and completed the updates in mid January without interrupting its ride-hailing service. Waymo currently operates a driverless ride hail in Phoenix and in San Francisco and plans to expand in Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, this year.

Waymo autonomous vehicles have collectively driven more than 10 million miles and conducted over 1 million ride-hail trips.