Zoox issues software recall after a robotaxi got confused by heavy sm…

Zoox issued a software recall after its robotaxi failed to detect heavy smoke at an active emergency fire scene in June, prompting a teleoperator intervention. The recall follows federal regulator pressure on autonomous vehicle companies to fix emergency scene detection as a core safety capability, not an edge case. If you're selling perception software or safety systems to autonomous vehicle makers, emergency scene detection just became a mandatory capability—not a nice-to-have. The regulator has drawn a line: Zoox and Waymo are being forced to solve for fire, police, and medical scenes as core cases, which means they need new suppliers for smoke, heat, and multi-modal detection.