Waymo suspended freeway driving across all of its US markets on Thursday, May 22, 2026, after concerns emerged about how its autonomous vehicles were handling construction zones. Customers noticed the change when opening the app and finding that trips previously routed via freeway were now projected to take significantly longer on local roads.
An unnamed Waymo spokesperson confirmed the suspension to Reuters, citing construction zone concerns, though the spokesperson did not specify what problems the vehicles were encountering. Waymo declined to provide an on-the-record statement. Local road service remains unaffected.
The company also paused service entirely in Atlanta and San Antonio due to issues with flooded roads. The Atlanta and San Antonio suspensions follow a software recall issued for Waymo’s entire fleet after multiple robotaxis were spotted driving through flooded roads in Texas at elevated speeds.
Freeway service had been available in four markets: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Miami. Highway driving is significant for Waymo because it reduces trip times and enables high-demand routes such as airport pickups and drop-offs — services the company has described as important to competing with rideshare providers like Uber and Lyft.
The suspensions come as Waymo, owned by Alphabet, has been expanding aggressively with a target of reaching 1 million paid rides per week. The company currently handles around 500,000 rides weekly. It is also preparing to launch the Zeekr-built Ojai electric van, which will debut its sixth-generation autonomous driving software.
The freeway pause adds to a recent run of negative incidents for the company. Last week, a cluster of empty Waymo vehicles caused a traffic jam in an Atlanta cul-de-sac, and a driver in Dallas recorded a Waymo running a red light at a busy intersection. No timeline has been given for when freeway driving or the suspended city services will resume.
Source: The Verge