Waymo Pauses Robotaxi Service on Freeways in Four Cities

Alphabet's autonomous driving company Waymo confirmed on Thursday that it has suspended the operation of its Robotaxi service on highways in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Miami due to the company working on software improvements regarding driving performance in construction zones. Days prior, Waymo had already interrupted its operations in Atlanta and San Antonio, Texas, at that time due to vehicles driving into water-logged sections.

Waymo confirmed to the tech media TechCrunch that the company is integrating "recent technological advancements" into its software system and expects to "resume highway services soon." At present, the ground road operations in the aforementioned four cities are unaffected and continue as normal.

The direct trigger for this highway service interruption has not been clarified yet, but several incidents involving construction zones have raised concerns. On May 19th, a user posted a video on social platform X, showing a Waymo vehicle driving on the highway and rushing past construction cones, claiming that the car was chased by the police afterward, which led to widespread dissemination.

Highway service is an important expansion initiative that Waymo has been promoting since the end of 2025, holding strategic significance for the company's layout in metro areas—high-speed roads help vehicles to dock at airports more efficiently and significantly reduce travel times between urban districts. For example, in the San Francisco Bay Area, the introduction of highways has significantly compressed trips that originally took from 45 minutes to over an hour.

The aforementioned service interruptions come at a critical juncture as Waymo accelerates its global expansion. The company has set a goal to strive to provide up to 1 million paid rides weekly by the end of 2026. At the same time, Waymo is testing a new generation of Robotaxi platforms called "Ojai," manufactured by Zeekr, and expects to put it into commercial operation within a few months.

Service suspension in San Antonio due to flooding issues has lasted for several weeks, and Waymo issued a software recall for the city last week to assist the fleet in avoiding waterlogged areas and has begun to develop more permanent technological solutions.