Zoox activates the program to remember the crossing paths

Amazon-owned Zoox issued a recall on Tuesday over concerns about its driving controls that have caused vehicles to cross the center line near intersections or block traffic. The voluntary recall of its software affected 332 vehicles, according to the documents issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Although there have not been any collisions related to this issue, Zoox has filed a NHTSA complaint that it may increase the risk of an accident. The company offers free tours to people in its Zoox driverless cars in parts of San Francisco and Las Vegas.

A spokesperson for Zoox told TechCrunch that the company has identified instances where its vehicles have controls that, while common for human drivers, did not meet its standards. For example, to avoid blocking certain intersections at a red light, the robot can stop at the intersection. In some cases, the robotaxi turned around too late, resulting in a major reversal, according to the spokesperson’s release.

The issue first came to light on Aug. 26 when a Zoox robotaxi made a sharp right turn, crossed slightly into an oncoming lane, and stopped momentarily in front of the oncoming lane, according to an NHTSA filing.

Zoox monitored crosswalks at additional crosswalks near the intersection, and ultimately identified 62 incidents between August 26 and December 5. The company said in the filing that it was “in ongoing discussions with NHTSA about the frequency, severity, and causes of these incidents.”

The company updated its software on November 7 and in mid-December to resolve all issues.

“We have fully identified and deployed a software update to address the underlying cause of this issue,” the statement said. “Today, we’re sending out a voluntary reminder because transparency and security are important to Zoox, and we want to be open and transparent with the public about how we develop and continually improve our technology.”

The app recalls incidents that affected Zoox vehicles operating on public roads between March 13 and December 18, according to the filing.

Zoox has released several anniversary programs this year, including one in March to address it unexpectedly hard brakes. That memory followed a preliminary investigation and NHTSA opened after the agency received two reports of motorcyclists crashing into the rear of Zoox vehicles.

In May, Zoox posted two recalls to deal with stress about the ability of the system to predict the movement of other road users.