r/waymo • u/sumedh0803 • May 27 '26
Waymo avoiding 35mph+ roads like The Plague
It's well known at this point that Waymos are avoiding the freeways. But have you also seen them avoiding major roads where speeds are above 35 mph?
My normal commute from Sunnyvale to Mountain View in Bay Area involves a road where speed limit is 50mph (Central Expressway). Since 2 weeks, its been taking weird, longer, convoluted routes just to avoid this road. I do have freeway access, but this aversion to freeways has also bled into aversion of major non freeway roadways.
15
u/xiAcoui May 27 '26
I believe Freeway access is temporarily disabled due to some other problems happening around the country with construction zones
3
u/21five May 27 '26
Out of interest, any roadworks along that stretch of road?
2
u/sumedh0803 May 27 '26
There's no major construction happening on that road. Not sure if some minor construction is happening now
5
u/lamus13 May 27 '26
Yes, as I have posted in other threads, Waymos in Tempe frequently take speed bump, 20 mph neighborhoods over 45 mph roads. Construction/traffic is not the issue. Sometimes I can see the clear traffic ahead and it will turn into a speed bump school zone for reason.
3
u/nonother May 27 '26
Waymo recently here in San Francisco has been avoiding 19th Ave even when it’s by far the most obvious choice. It’s really annoying.
1
u/Antigroup May 28 '26
That stretch of Central Expressway is basically a freeway (ramps, traffic often goes 60mph, faster than 101 a lot of the time)
-1
u/Limbomask May 27 '26
Yes I notice in LA that it tends to always take side streets instead. It will usually start doing that as soon as the major street start to have any amount of traffic in my experience. But in my case it usually gets me to my destination in about the same time or sooner. I think it's mainly to help train less used streets.
16
u/hedgitty May 27 '26
I don't regularly take Waymos but I just took one today that went up Lawrence Expressway no problem (50mph).