waymo pauses service in 5 cities as cars keep driving into floodwaters As good as some self-driving-so-called "autonomous"-cars are, they're still far from perfect. One example is that while a human might notice a roadway is flooded and decide to turn back, a car using cameras and radar/LiDAR to give it a sense of the world could have a hard time discerning whether it's an inch of water or a foot. Waymo's robotaxis are apparently having this problem in a few cities, and the company is now putting its ride-hailing service on hold while it looks for a solution. 10 Car Brands People Don't Want To Buy Ever Again waymo pauses service in 5 cities as cars keep driving into floodwaters Back in April, a Waymo robotaxi in San Antonio, Texas, mistook a flooded road for one that was presumably just lightly covered in water. That car was promptly pulled into a creek by the moving water, ending the vehicle's life and cancelling whatever ride it was off to give. Thankfully, nobody was aboard the car-turned-boat at the time. This wasn't an isolated incident, though, and an Atlanta-based Waymo, too, plunged straight into a road that no sensible driver would so much as approach. Atlanta's 10News says the Waymo was stuck there for an hour, at which point a driver-yes, a real human-climbed in and drove the car out. Maybe Skynet isn't as much of a threat as we think. Amidst these lapses in judgment, Waymo has decided to put a pause on service in Austin, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio during this stretch of flood-causing weather occurring across Texas and the South. Waymo is undoubtedly working on a fix, and hopefully looking at what happened with the two aforementioned wannabe-amphibious vehicles before setting them free again. This isn't the first lapse in judgment for the robotaxis; the headlines haven't been kind to Waymo this year, with a California-based Waymo hitting a child in a school zone in late January. Ano 2026 Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid: All the Details