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Waymo expands pause to four cities as robotaxis keep driving into floods

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Waymo has now paused service in four cities because its robotaxis are struggling to deal with heavy rain and flooded roads, a problem that already prompted the company to issue a recall last week.

One of Waymo’s robotaxis was spotted driving through a flooded street in Atlanta, Georgia, on Wednesday before it ultimately got stuck for about an hour, according to local news reports. The vehicle was recovered and removed from the scene, Waymo told TechCrunch. Waymo says it paused service in the city, just like it has in San Antonio, Texas, while it figures out a solution.

“Safety is Waymo’s top priority, both for our riders and everyone we share the road with. During a period of intense rain yesterday in Atlanta, an unoccupied Waymo vehicle encountered a flooded road and stopped,” the company said in a statement.

Waymo also halted service in Dallas and Houston because of severe weather across Texas this week, the company confirmed to TechCrunch late Thursday. The expansion was first reported by Bloomberg News.

A Waymo spokesperson said the company also paused service in Dallas and Houston out of an abundance of caution for the forecasted severe weather.

Waymo admitted that it hadn’t finished developing a “final remedy” for avoiding flooded areas when it issued its software recall last week. Instead, the company said that it shipped an update to its fleet that placed “restrictions at times and in locations where there is an elevated risk of encountering a flooded, higher-speed roadway,” according to documents released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

But even those precautions apparently were not enough to stop the Waymo robotaxi from entering a flooded intersection in Atlanta. Waymo told TechCrunch on Thursday that the storm in Atlanta produced so much rainfall that flooding was happening before the National Weather Service had issued a flash flood warning, watch, or advisory. The company said those alerts are part of a larger set of signals it relies on to prepare the vehicles for poor weather.

“NHTSA is aware of this incident, is in communication with Waymo, and will take appropriate action if necessary,” a spokesperson for the safety regulator told TechCrunch regarding the robotaxi that got stuck in Atlanta.

This is not the first time Waymo has struggled to quickly stamp out problematic behavior with its robotaxis. When people started to notice Waymo robotaxis illegally passing stopped school buses last year, the company shipped a fix that was supposed to address the issue — only for its fleet to continue making illegal maneuvers around school buses.

Waymo’s behavior around school buses is at the center of one of two sets of active investigations into the company.

Both the NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are looking into this problem. Waymo has already produced a batch of documents for the NHTSA, all of which were redacted to the public. On May 15, the NHTSA sent a second document request to Waymo because the company’s initial response “necessitates that [NHTSA] receive further data and information.”

The other set of investigations from the NHTSA and NTSB involve a January 23 incident where a Waymo robotaxi crashed into a child in Santa Monica, California. Waymo has said that its robotaxi braked to around six miles per hour before it struck that child and that she suffered minor injuries.

This story has been updated with more information about how Waymo uses National Weather Service alerts, and to include new service pauses in Houston and Dallas.

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CAF Champions League: Rivers United Hold San Pedro, Set Up Crucial Home Decider

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Rivers United have returned from Côte d’Ivoire with a valuable 1–1 draw against FC San Pedro in the first leg of their CAF Champions League first preliminary-round tie.

The result gives the Pride of Rivers a strong platform ahead of the return fixture, with the Nigerian side now needing a victory at home to secure their place in the next qualifying round.

Read Also: 27 Years Later, Shooting Stars Return to Africa With a Win as Lucky Emmanuel Sinks CS Sfaxien

The draw is particularly encouraging for Rivers United after head coach Finidi George had stressed before the game that avoiding defeat in Abidjan would represent a positive outcome. He specifically identified a 1–1 draw as an acceptable result that would leave his side in a good position for the return leg.

Rivers United went into the continental assignment with confidence after opening their 2026/27 NPFL campaign with a 2–0 victory over Plateau United, while Finidi also highlighted the physical qualities of San Pedro and the youthful character of his own revamped squad.

Now, the equation is straightforward.

The two sides are level on aggregate, and Rivers United will have the advantage of playing the decisive second leg on Nigerian soil. The return fixture is currently listed for September 13, giving the Port Harcourt club the opportunity to complete the job in front of their supporters.

For a Rivers United side that reached the CAF Champions League group stage last season, the objective is clear: turn the away draw into qualification and keep Nigeria’s flag flying in Africa’s premier club competition.

A goal in Abidjan. A valuable draw secured.
Now, the Pride of Rivers must finish the job at home.

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Seattle Times and Newsday are the latest publications to sue OpenAI and Microsoft

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Two more news organizations are suing OpenAI and Microsoft over the supposed use of their journalism to train AI.

A lawsuit filed by The Seattle Times and Newsday argued that with the advent of AI, the journalism industry could become “broken beyond repair.” The lawsuit described generative AI as “a snake eating its own tail” that could “destroy the very organizations” that produce the content it’s trained on.

“AI products like ChatGPT and CoPilot are touted as producers of content, but in fact they are rapacious consumers, devouring human-authored content and delivering back to the world copies and derivative imitations of that same original content they consumed to achieve their commercial objectives,” the lawsuit said.

Back in 2023, The New York Times sued OpenAI and its partner/investor Microsoft over alleged copyright infringement; other publications have followed suit as the case continued. The Seattle Times’ lawsuit is particularly notable because Microsoft and OpenAI have funded some of the organization’s journalism projects and fellowships.

A Microsoft spokesperson told GeekWire that the company is “surprised by the lawsuit” but is “always happy to sit down and explore solutions to this type of dispute.”

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