Waymo Cars Cause Traffic Chaos In San Francisco Fog Weeks After Cruise Crash

On Tuesday morning, five self-driving Waymo vehicles reportedly pulled over in San Francisco’s Balboa Terrace due to dense fog, causing a disruption in traffic. 

What Happened: Waymo caused a traffic jam for several minutes before moving out when the fog started to clear, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

In response, Waymo is now considering software updates to improve the performance of its autonomous vehicles in foggy conditions, the Chronicle quoted Waymo spokesperson Chris Bonelli as saying.

“Early Tuesday morning, multiple Waymo vehicles in San Francisco encountered very dense fog and determined they should pull over temporarily,” the company said in a statement to Benzinga after the publication of this story.

“After a brief stop, the vehicles autonomously cleared the area as the fog began to clear. We have software updates planned to improve our fog and parking performance to address such situations in the future.”

See Also: Best Electric Vehicle Stocks

Why It Matters: Waymo, previously known as the Google self-driving car project, started operating in San Francisco last year. It is now the autonomous driving technology unit of Alphabet Inc. GOOG GOOGL.

Last week, Cruise LLC, a rival of Waymo, recalled 300 Automated Driving Systems due to an issue that caused a Cruise AV to collide with a San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority bus on March 23. Cruise is backed by General Motors Co GM.

Check out more of Benzinga's Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.

Read More: Rivian CEO Reveals Why He's Against Adopting Apple CarPlay: ‘You Have To Control…'