Apr 20, 2026Confirmed
Waymo robotaxi drove into flooded San Antonio road and was swept into a waterway; no one was aboard
Rogue: Acted on its own, Caused harmAI loose in the worldPhysical safetyDERIVED
Approved by person, Oct 11, 2026. How entries are approved
An unoccupied Waymo robotaxi reportedly entered a flooded roadway near Salado Creek in San Antonio on April 20, 2026, and was swept into a waterway. Waymo told regulators the vehicle detected possibly impassable water but continued at reduced speed. No injuries were reported. Waymo restricted operations and later recalled 3,791 driving systems.
What this means for youSelf-driving cars can misjudge hazards like floodwater, even when they detect them. If you ride in or share roads with robotaxis, know that companies can pause service or issue recalls after such events. Check a robotaxi service's weather policies before relying on it in storms.
Sources
- AI Incident Databasehttps://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1544
Data from the AI Incident Database (incidentdatabase.ai), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. IAAI-21.
Source data license: CC BY-SA 4.0 (database). Report contents keep their own rights; reports.text, submissions, images and videos are excluded from the data license.
rogue:R1rogue:R4
Covered by snapshot 45
da93f03b406f409940d0a6ef47b526607f82ebf457d98f69299b88aceede576a
This entry is record number 2188. It has not been edited since it was approved; the hash above would not match if it had. How to verify