Two Waymo self-driving vehicles hit the same improperly towed pickup truck minutes apart in Phoenix on December 11, 2023, due to the AI system incorrectly predicting the future motion of the backwards-facing towed vehicle.
On December 11, 2023, two Waymo self-driving vehicles operated by Alphabet's autonomous vehicle division collided with the same pickup truck being towed backwards in Phoenix, Arizona. The incidents occurred minutes apart when both Waymo cars encountered a tow truck pulling a pickup truck that was angled across a center turn lane and traffic lane rather than being aligned straight behind the tow truck. Both Waymo vehicles incorrectly interpreted what their cameras were seeing and wrongly predicted how the towed truck would move, leading to collisions. After the first collision, the tow truck continued driving without stopping, and a second Waymo vehicle subsequently hit the same pickup truck. Neither Waymo vehicle was carrying passengers at the time, and the incidents resulted in no injuries and only minor vehicle damage to bumpers and a sensor. Waymo immediately informed Phoenix Police Department, Arizona Department of Public Safety, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the incidents. The company developed and deployed a software fix to address the issue between December 20, 2023 and January 12, 2024, updating their entire fleet. Following discussions with NHTSA, Waymo filed a voluntary recall report for the previous software version.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
AI systems that fail to perform reliably or effectively under varying conditions, exposing them to errors and failures that can have significant consequences, especially in critical applications or areas that require moral reasoning.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Unintentional
Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed
No population impact data reported.