Waymo's Driverless Taxis Are Back in San Antonio After Flooding Trouble
Waymo is running its driverless taxis in San Antonio again, five months after floodwater carried away an empty car and forced its longest break from service there. TechCrunch
The service covers 60 miles, including downtown and San Antonio International Airport. Dozens of cars are on the road to start, open to some riders at first. Waymo now charges for rides in 15 U.S. cities.
The shutdown started with heavy rain on April 20. Several Waymo cars got stuck in flooded streets. One car with no one inside was washed into Salado Creek. Houston Public Media The cars slowed near flooded streets but did not stop.
Waymo also paused briefly in other Texas cities around that time and has since restarted there. In late April it said it was reviewing how it watches for floods in San Antonio. GovTech
In May came the fix. Waymo recalled almost 3,800 driverless cars after the incident. Houston Public Media It changed the software to help cars spot and stay out of standing water, and kept cars away from areas with higher flood risk.
The return comes with new safety numbers. Waymo studied more than 220 million miles with no one driving, through the end of March 2026, in five places where it operates, adding Atlanta for the first time. It now drives more than 4 million miles each week. Waymo
Compared with human drivers in the same places at the same time, Waymo reports 94% fewer crashes with serious or deadly injuries, 82% fewer crashes where airbags went off, and 82% fewer crashes with any injury reported.
For people outside cars, who have the least protection, it reports 84% fewer crashes that hurt cyclists, 84% fewer that hurt motorcyclists, and 93% fewer that hurt pedestrians.
In Atlanta the study covers more than 5.4 million driverless miles. There Waymo reports 86% fewer crashes with injuries and 94% fewer crashes where airbags went off than the human comparison.
The company is still expanding. In August 2026 Waymo said it would start testing cars with no drivers in Munich in the coming weeks. Reuters It aims to pass 1 million paid rides a week by the end of 2026. CBS Austin Driverless rides for employees in Austin started in March 2024.
The broader context here is one I have seen before with new technology. Avoiding other cars is one job. Dealing with floodwater is another. Cameras and laser sensors struggle to tell how deep still water is, a bit like trying to judge how deep a puddle is from a photo. Often the safe choice is to stay off that street entirely rather than brake at the last second.
In my view, San Antonio is a clear lesson because no one was hurt and the problem was easy to name. Waymo is blocking off streets that flood easily, using weather and water data more closely when it sends out cars, and playing it safer on water depth. That means fewer streets for now to keep the service working long term. What other operators should note is the pattern: the cars slowed down but did not have a firm enough rule to stop and turn around. Problems like that only show up once many cars drive many miles, and Waymo now drives enough miles to find them faster.
