Waymo Recalls Software After Two Robotaxis Hit Same Tow Truck
Two Waymo autonomous vehicles collided with the same tow truck and its payload in Phoenix, Arizona, within minutes of each other. The incidents were caused by a software misinterpretation of the vehicle's orientation and movement.
The Waymo AV misinterpreted the conjoined vehicles’ direction of travel and hit the pickup.
Key facts
- What
- Two Waymo autonomous vehicles collided with the same tow truck and its payload in Phoenix, Arizona, within minutes of each other.
- Incident date
- Dec 11, 2023
- Who
- Waymo
- Failure mode
- Brand & Safety Incident
- AI surface
- Autonomous System
- Severity
- Low
What happened
Two Waymo autonomous vehicles collided with the same tow truck and its payload in Phoenix, Arizona, on December 11, 2023. The crashes occurred just minutes apart in different locations. Both vehicles were unoccupied and sustained only minor damage, and no injuries were reported.
What broke inside the model
- 01 · TriggerA user prompts the model in public view.
- 02 · Model stepThe model produces unsafe or off-brand output.
- 03 · Control gapNo filter holds the line before publish.
- 04 · FailureThe output goes public unchecked.
- 05 · ConsequenceA reputational or safety incident lands.
A contained signal crosses into output that goes public.
The autonomous vehicles misinterpreted the direction of travel and orientation of a pickup truck being towed backwards and askew. This led the system to wrongly predict the truck's movement, resulting in the collisions.
What it cost
Sources
Cite this entry
https://failureindex.ai/failures/waymo-recalls-software-two-robotaxis-hitAI Failure Index. "Waymo Recalls Software After Two Robotaxis Hit Same Tow Truck" (FI-0668). Realm Labs. https://failureindex.ai/failures/waymo-recalls-software-two-robotaxis-hit (indexed Jun 22, 2026).Data fields CC-BY 4.0, prose citation permitted. Incident ID FI-0668. Full dataset at /data.
Note from Realm Labs, the Index steward
How Realm would have caught this
- Prism
- OmniGuard
- AI Detection & Response (AIDR)
Realm watches the model's internal state for the signature of unsafe or off-brand generation and can block or reroute the output before it becomes public, in real time rather than after it has been screenshotted.