What happened

An unoccupied Waymo robotaxi (a Jaguar I-Pace) crashed into a wooden utility pole while navigating an alleyway in Phoenix, Arizona.

The vehicle was en route to pick up a passenger and was traveling at approximately 8 mph (13 km/h) through an alley lined with telephone poles. Unlike typical streets where poles are mounted on raised curbs, these poles were situated at road level, flush with the driving surface, with only painted yellow lines marking the path. As the vehicle attempted to pull over, it failed to recognise the pole as a solid obstruction and struck it.

The collision caused damage to the vehicle, but because the car was empty at the time, there were no injuries. The passenger waiting for the ride reported hearing the crash but did not witness it.

Following the crash, Waymo paused operations to investigate and subsequently filed a voluntary recall with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for its entire fleet of 672 driverless vehicles.

Why it happened

The crash was attributed to a specific failure in how the AI interpreted its physical environment and prioritised risks, rather than a sensor failure (the car "saw" the pole but misjudged it).

• Technical failure: Waymo engineers determined that the system’s software had assigned a "low damage score" to the telephone pole. In Waymo's decision-making logic, objects are assigned scores based on the potential severity of hitting them; a low score implies the object was categorized similarly to a minor brush (like a bush) rather than a solid collision hazard.

• Mapping limitations: The vehicle's high-definition (HD) map of the alleyway was insufficient. It failed to account for the "hard road edge" created by the poles being flush with the road surface. Without a physical curb to delineate the driveable space, the software relied on the map and the incorrect damage score, leading it to drive into the pole.

• Transparency and accountability: Waymo disclosed the incident proactively to federal regulators and issued a voluntary recall to update the software. This contrasts with more opaque responses seen in other industry incidents, though it occurred amidst an ongoing NHTSA investigation into other Waymo driving irregularities.