Waymo Resumes Freeway Operations After Two-Month Pause Over Construction Zone Incidents

Waymo restarts freeway rides in Phoenix following a pause and recall triggered by robotaxis driving into closed construction zones. The company faces new federal safety legislation.

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Waymo is resuming freeway operations today in Phoenix, two months after pausing the service following incidents in which its robotaxis drove into closed construction zones. The company said it will expand freeway rides to Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Austin in the coming weeks.

The Alphabet subsidiary voluntarily recalled nearly 4,000 robotaxis in June 2026 after at least 13 instances of vehicles entering highway construction zones. No injuries or collisions were reported from those incidents. The recall marked Waymo's sixth such action; previous recalls addressed issues such as driving into flooded roads and behavior around school buses.

Waymo identified an area of improvement regarding performance around freeway construction zones and implemented software updates that include enhanced scene recognition and routing to address the problem. "We are welcoming riders on freeways again after implementing software updates to improve our performance around highway construction zones," said Waymo spokesperson Sandy Karp. "We remain focused on operating responsibly to build a driver that communities trust and want on our roads."

The company first introduced freeway rides for the public in November 2025 in Phoenix, and expanded the service later that year. Riders must join an interest list in the Waymo app and receive approval to access freeway routes. Waymo may reroute vehicles for reasons known ahead of time, such as heavy traffic or construction.

The restart comes amid heightened regulatory scrutiny. Representative Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.) has proposed a bill that would establish federal minimum safety standards for autonomous vehicles, following incidents involving emergency responders. Meanwhile, an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) report found that Waymo's crash rate in Phoenix was 76% lower than that of human drivers, based on federal crash data. However, the report's authors noted difficulty in comparing crash rates due to variability in reporting requirements.

According to NHTSA data at the time of the recall, only four incidents involving Waymo vehicles on or near freeways in the Phoenix metro area had been reported, none of which involved construction zones.