Waymo robotaxis still passing school buses, feds say

Nearly a year after Waymo issued a software fix for robotaxis illegally passing stopped school buses, federal safety regulators say the problem didn’t go away — and that most of the troubling incidents on record actually happened after that fix went out. The finding comes from a November 6 filing by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, first reported by Reuters, which opened a new investigation into why the update failed to solve what it was built to solve.

Waymo said last year that the update had been completed across all affected vehicles by November 17, 2025. But NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation says most of the reported incidents came after that date, and has opened a recall query — an inquiry meant to “assess the adequacy of the remedy.”

The agency’s original investigation dates back to October 2025, when it reviewed footage of a Waymo vehicle maneuvering around a school bus that had stopped with its stop sign extended and lights flashing while unloading children in Atlanta. According to the agency, the robotaxi crossed in front of the bus from its right side at a perpendicular angle, then looped left around the bus’s front end before driving on down the street.

Since then, similar incidents have piled up in Austin, where Waymo also runs a robotaxi service. Austin Independent School District officials have reported at least five such incidents, according to a letter the district filed with NHTSA.

Why it matters

A safety fix that doesn’t hold up around school buses is one of the clearest tests of whether a driverless fleet can be trusted near children — and a second investigation suggests Waymo’s first attempt at a remedy fell short.