Floodwaters overtook the unoccupied car during heavy rains the night of April 20, about two weeks after another Waymo got caught in high water at McCollough Avenue and Contour Drive in a separate incident.
The car "entered a flooded roadway and was pulled into an active waterway," Waymo said in an emailed statement.
Waymo service was still unavailable in San Antonio on Tuesday afternoon in what appears to be the company's longest service pause to date. It's previously halted operations for up to a few days for Phoenix floods, Los Angeles protests and a San Francisco power outage.
"Like many of our neighbors, we were affected by this severe weather when one of our unoccupied vehicles was caught in the rising waters," a company spokesman said. "In coordination with local emergency teams, we have recovered it safely and are incredibly grateful for the hard work of the city's first responders during this time."
The San Antonio Fire Department said it wasn't involved in the recovery, and the San Antonio Express-News is awaiting records about the incident from the San Antonio Police Department.
A city spokesman said San Antonio Park Police gave Waymo access to the Greenway Trail system along Salado Creek near Pletz Park to retrieve the lost vehicle. The recovery took most of the day Friday.
"We are taking this event seriously and are thoroughly reviewing our San Antonio operations to refine our flood monitoring mitigations. We will resume service soon," the company said.
People may still see Waymo vehicles on area roads, but they aren't serving riders. The company said they're doing "validation testing with trained specialists in the car."
Waymo operates in 11 cities around the country, including Austin, Dallas and Houston.
In Phoenix, Waymos with passengers have gotten stuck in floodwaters, including during a storm in September, according to local outlets. Nobody was hurt in the incidents, and the cars were towed to safety. That storm led to a service pause for three days.
The Google spinoff began limited service in San Antonio in February with dozens of its white Jaguar I-Paces covering a 60-square-mile service area that is roughly bounded by Interstate 10 on the south and west and Loop 410 to the north and east.
On March 31, San Antonio International Airport became the first in the state to get the service.
Statistics show the company's automated Waymo Driver system is safer than human drivers and involved in significantly fewer accidents involving injuries, fatalities and airbag deployments.
The company is under scrutiny from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration after Waymos drove past stopped school buses in Austin and struck a child near a school in California. Waymo voluntarily reported that accident, which the child walked away from.
The NHTSA has not said whether it will launch an investigation into the events that led to the Waymo getting washed away.
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