A Waymo robotaxi heads into the intersection at North Main and Evergreen streets as a worker pressure washes a crosswalk. The service was shut down in April after one of the company’s cars was swept off a flooded road, but police records show they faced dozens of other issues before that.
Sam Owens/San Antonio Express-News
San Antonio police responded to at least 50 incidents involving Waymo robotaxis in the 10 months before the company shut down service in April after one of its cars drove into floodwaters and was swept away.
Most of the calls involved Waymos blocking traffic. But there were also crashes, cars stranded in high water, reckless- and wrong-way-driving complaints. They also included reports of three cats struck by the self-driving cars. The white SUVS haven’t injured anyone in San Antonio while operating autonomously, according to police records, but a pedestrian required hospitalization after being hit in April by a Waymo with a human at the wheel.
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The ride-hailing service in San Antonio is still shut down, but the Google spinoff has resumed testing its autonomous Jaguar I-PACEs in the city.
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A review of 270 pages of police records shows that the cars frequently need help from humans when they run into trouble. They also reveal more about Waymo’s operation, the odd ways some people interact with the equipment-laden cars — and how the robotaxis could help solve crime.
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Not all of the calls were due to Waymo operational failures but they show the difficulties the evolving technology has in a city environment built for humans.
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Waymo spokesman Nye Davidson said the police records tell an incomplete story.
“It’s important to distinguish between a police record that references a Waymo vehicle and an incident in which a Waymo vehicle required police assistance,” he said in an email.
Many of the events didn’t have “a clear indication if any follow-up happened or was even necessary” and Davidson said that the company would not characterize them as “50 operational incidents attributable to Waymo.”
‘Got Waymo out of the road … ’
Between June 2025 and April, police received at least 24 calls about Waymos stopped in intersections, streets, driveways or road shoulders.
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The calls spanned Waymo’s 60-square-mile San Antonio service area and were largely clustered along major north-central and near-downtown corridors, including Harry Wurzbach Road, Austin Highway, Interstate 35, New Braunfels Avenue, San Pedro Avenue and Basse Road.
They included an April 3 incident at the intersection of Burr and Wurzbach roads where two Waymos were stopped at a traffic signal that was stuck on red, forcing other vehicles to drive around them. A similar event was reported five days later at McCullough Avenue and Basse when malfunctioning railroad crossing arms hung up another Waymo.
Also in April, two Waymos were spotted diagonally blocking the road at New Braunfels and Cloverleaf avenues. The cars were gone by the time an officer arrived.
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On Feb. 3, two officers had to help move a disabled Waymo from an Interstate 35 frontage road. “Made location and got Waymo out of the road,” one of the officers wrote in the report.
Austin police officers work to get a Waymo robotaxi moving after it temporarily stopped near a rollover crash in May at West 15th and San Antonio streets in Austin. Officers responded to dozens of Waymo related calls in San Antonio before the company shut down its service in April.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
In 12 of the cases, the robotaxis were gone or no longer blocking traffic when police arrived. Nine required some intervention by officers, police dispatchers or Waymo staff. In two, no clear outcome was recorded and one was deemed not a traffic hazard.
The police department said it and the fire department met with Waymo in late 2025 to train first responders on how to work with the vehicles during emergencies.
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On Wednesday, a photo of a Waymo appearing to be pulled over by police on San Pedro Ave. at West Elmira Street began circulating on social media. But the officer wasn’t making a traffic stop, according to police spokeswoman Julyssa DeLuna.
“The vehicle was already stopped, and the officer helped relocate it safely,” she said in an email. “As far as citations, we do not track the number of citations given to Waymo vehicles.”
‘Another Waymo stuck in water’
Waymo has had at least four problems with cars in high water, twice the number the company has previously disclosed.
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The most serious occurred April 20, when an unoccupied Waymo drove into floodwaters covering an Interstate 35 frontage road at Salado Creek. The car was swept away and recovered four days later along the Greenway Trail system near Pletz County Park.
According to the California-based company, the incident revealed a need to improve the cars’ software when operating on “high-speed flooded roadways.” Though it issued a software recall for its entire U.S. fleet after the incident, only its San Antonio service remains suspended.
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“We put mitigations in place after the incident and filed a voluntary software recall with (the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) related to that specific scenario,” Davidson, the Waymo spokesman, said. The software recall impacted Waymo’s fleet of 3,800 cars.
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A Waymo autonomous vehicle goes through standing water on Metro Center Drive in Austin after a brief, intense rainstorm April 30.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
In May, the company briefly shut down passenger service in its other Texas markets — Austin, Dallas and Houston — as well as in Atlanta and Nashville, because of impending severe weather.
The other high water incidents in San Antonio occurred during heavy rains April 4.
One unoccupied Waymo “drove into a ditch and (was) covered in water” at McCullough Avenue and East Contour Drive.
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“Waymo support made the high water crossing a no go zone so other Waymos will not go this way,” an officer wrote in the report. “Ensured a tow was enroute.”
Two other robotaxis also got stranded that day, one in a “big dip (that) collects a lot of water” at Basse Road and Neer Avenue and another on Devine Road at the Olmos Sports Complex.
“Another Waymo stuck in water,” the reporting officer wrote. “Moved to safety, contacted support.”
Crashes, unusual driving complaints
Waymos have been involved in at least five crashes, including the April 2 accident on Eisenhauer Road in which one of the cars hit a pedestrian while being driven by a human.
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Other vehicles struck the robotaxis in the other crashes between February and April — including two apparent hit-and-runs.
At least nine calls reported robotaxis driving recklessly. They had officers looking for Waymos driving on railroad tracks and street shoulders, going the wrong way on Broadway, approaching someone at a Whataburger drive-through, cutting off a biker, speeding, and going the wrong way up a parking lot exit ramp.
RELATED: Human driver in Waymo robotaxi hits pedestrian on Northeast Side, San Antonio police say
In each of those cases, the Waymos were gone before officers arrived.
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“Not able to locate the vehicle in question, and it wasn’t hit by a train otherwise there woulda been waymo’ pieces of debris in that area,” wrote the officer who responded.
In March, a human Waymo driver was cited after driving around police barricades for a house fire on Eisenhauer.
How residents interacted with Waymos
The white Jaguars laden with spinning sensors and cameras also have had some strange interactions with people since hitting San Antonio streets.
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A half-dozen calls reported them as suspicious vehicles loitering on residential streets. One female caller was concerned she was being stalked by one of the cars with a human driver. An officer reported no criminal activity. And the robotaxi’s remote human overseers, who can assist the cars and watch their camera feeds from afar, have also called police for assistance.
They’ve reported a man standing in the road and blocking a Waymo’s path, another who threw a cup of water at one and an incident involving two apparently homeless people looking into and leaning on a robotaxi.
In January and February, Waymos hit and killed three cats, two more than previously disclosed.
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An operator “attempted to disengage the vehicle to avoid hitting the cat, but it was too late,” wrote an officer about a Jan. 20 incident on Holbrook Road.
In addition to radar and lidar, each Waymo has 29 cameras that are constantly monitoring its surroundings. The technology has raised privacy concerns and worries about mass surveillance. The company has not disclosed specifics such as timelines and security of its data retention policy, but police see the footage as a resource that could help solve crimes.
A Waymo robotaxi travels on the East Side of San Antonio in October. The service remains shut down in the city after one of the company’s cars was swept away in an April flood.
Sam Owens/San Antonio Express-News
Detectives wrote that a Waymo parked near the site of an armed robbery on Josephine Street in February may have footage of the suspects and their vehicle, for example.
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Records ID possible Waymo operations site
The company hasn’t disclosed the size of its San Antonio fleet or where it’s based but police records and social media posts indicate it uses a warehouse at 4810 Eisenhauer Road.
One officer wrote in a report that the property “is the Waymo warehouse where Waymos are test driven.” And images of Waymos inside the facility have appeared online.
The Eisenhauer property was already a frequent police hotspot before Waymo appeared in the records, with calls involving suspicious people, alarms, disturbances and homeless-related complaints.
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Waymo’s Davidson didn’t say when ride-hailing service for passengers would resume in San Antonio.
“We will continue working closely with San Antonio first responders and public safety agencies to strengthen coordination, incorporate their feedback and support safe interactions with our vehicles,” he said.