{"id":441351,"date":"2026-09-19T20:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T20:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/441351\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T20:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T20:26:16","slug":"waymo-reboots-san-antonio-robotaxis-after-april-flooding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/441351\/","title":{"rendered":"Waymo reboots San Antonio robotaxis after April flooding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five months after April storms swept away one of its self-driving cars, Waymo<\/a> is once again picking up San Antonio passengers. The ride-hailing app says that it has made significant software updates that will allow its fleet to better respond to the area\u2019s unpredictable weather.<\/p>\n

Launched<\/a> in late February, Waymo was new to the San Antonio market when one of its cars attempted to navigate a flooded street. Although the car was unoccupied during the deluge, the company suspended local service. The incident came just a few days after Waymo introduced rides<\/a> to the San Antonio International Airport.<\/p>\n

In May, another car was stranded in Atlanta after a heavy downpour. Although that vehicle was quickly recovered, Waymo responded by voluntarily pulling<\/a> all of its 3,791 nationwide vehicles.<\/p>\n

After an audit of potential flood zones, the company began gradually reintroducing the service this summer to less flood-prone markets like Phoenix and Los Angeles. Alamo City\u2019s fleet has been autonomously traveling local roadways for a few weeks, but has not been available to customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cSafety is our highest priority at Waymo, both for people who choose to ride with us and those with whom we share the streets,\u201d said spokesperson Chris Bonelli in a statement.<\/p>\n

Among the changes made to Waymo\u2019s systems are adjusted alerts that quickly react to changing weather conditions like heavy rainfall. Software has also been updated to improve the vehicle\u2019s ability to detect floodwaters and adjust its navigation.<\/p>\n

Waymo\u2019s San Antonio presence of a few dozen cars is still relatively slim compared to other markets like San Francisco, where it operated hundreds of vehicles. Unlike in Austin, the company does not have a partnership through Uber. Locals curious about the service must download the Waymo app and get on a waiting list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five months after April storms swept away one of its self-driving cars, Waymo is once again picking up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[152761,13960,82,84,83,840,10020],"class_list":["post-441351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-raid-hailing","tag-robotaxis","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-transportation","tag-waymo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}