Artificial Intelligence Policy Tracker

AI incident ·

Waymo Robotaxi Reportedly Entered Flooded San Antonio Roadway and Was Swept Into Waterway

4 news reports Snapshot 7 Sep 2026
On this page 7 sections

In brief

An AI system built by Waymo and Automated Driving System Developers and deployed by Waymo, Robotaxi Operators and 1 other allegedly harmed Waymo and Road Users.

Risk domain
Not classified
Occurred
Coverage
4 reportsApr 2026 - May 2026

What happened

An unoccupied Waymo robotaxi reportedly entered a flooded roadway near Salado Creek in San Antonio on April 20, 2026, and was swept into a nearby waterway. Waymo told regulators that the vehicle detected potentially untraversable floodwater but proceeded at reduced speed. No passengers were aboard and no injuries were reported. Waymo restricted operations and later recalled 3,791 fifth- and sixth-generation automated driving systems.

Laws on record for this risk area

No instrument on record yet covers this risk area where it happened. See the open queue.

Matched from the record's risk category and country to the instruments in effect recorded here: a law listed covers the area, which is not a finding that it applies to this incident. A reviewer can correct the match in the repository (data/external/incident_overrides.yaml).

News reports (4)

Titles link to the original publisher; report text is not reproduced here.

Who was involved

Alleged harmed party
Waymo, Road Users

Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)

Risk domain
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Causal entity
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Intent
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Other incidents involving Waymo, Robotaxi Operators, Automated Driving System Deployers

Source record: incident #1544 on the AI Incident Database · all 4 reports