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Federal safety regulators have opened a new investigation into Waymo after determining that its autonomous vehicles continue to illegally drive past stopped school buses. According to a November 6 filing by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the majority of reported violations occurred after the company deployed a software update intended to fix the issue. The agency's Office of Defects Investigation has now launched a recall query to determine whether the remedy was adequate.
The regulatory action follows an initial probe opened in October 2025 after video showed a Waymo robotaxi maneuvering around a stopped school bus that was unloading children with its stop arm extended and red lights flashing in Atlanta. The vehicle crossed perpendicularly in front of the bus from the right side before continuing down the street. Although Waymo announced that a software update was completed across all affected vehicles on November 17, 2025, reports of improper passes persisted.
Violations have also been recorded in Austin, where officials from the Austin Independent School District documented at least five incidents of robotaxis improperly passing buses in a letter filed with NHTSA. The new inquiry puts renewed scrutiny on the reliability of autonomous driving systems when interacting with school bus safety protocols.
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