Last December, two Waymo robotaxis collided with the same pickup truck in tow in Phoenix, prompting the Alphabet subsidiary to recall the software on its vehicles. Feedback in this case meant updating the software after investigating the problem and determining its root cause.

Waymo reported that on December 11, 2023, one of its robotaxes collided with a pickup truck that was being towed in reverse. The company claims the pickup truck was towed incorrectly, at an angle to the turn lane and the traffic lane. The tow truck did not stop after the incident, and a few minutes later another Waymo vehicle collided with the pickup truck. Waymo didn’t specify what it meant when it said its robot taxi “collided” with a pickup truck, but said no one was injured in the incidents and the vehicles sustained minor damage. The self-driving vehicles that took part in the skirmishes did not carry passengers.

After an investigation, Waymo found that its software incorrectly predicted the pickup’s future movements due to a “persistent orientation mismatch” between the car being towed and the one being towed. The company has developed and approved a patch for its software to prevent similar incidents in the future, and began rolling out the update to its fleet on December 20, Engadget reports.

A crowd smashed and set fire to a self-driving Waymo taxi in San Francisco. There was no one in the car

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