Waymo recalls roughly 1,200 self-driving vehicles prone to hitting road barriers

Waymo, the ride-hailing service owned by Google-parent Alphabet, has recalled 1,212 of its driverless cars over faulty software that causes them to crash into chains, gates and other roadway barriers.

"A vehicle that crashes into chains, gates or other gate-like roadway barriers increases the risk of injury," the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states in a recall notice posted Monday.

The recall affects Waymo vehicles equipped with its fifth-generation automated driving system (ADS) and follows an investigation opened a year ago by NHTSA that cited 16 reports of "collisions with stationary and semi-stationary objects such as gates and chains" between December 2022 and 2024.