US opens new probe into Waymo vehicles over school bus safety violations
FILE PHOTO: The Waymo Ojai autonomous vehicle, a Chinese-made electric vehicle manufactured by Zeekr, travels along a major Los Angeles freeway through Hawthorne, California, US, October 13, 2026. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
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WASHINGTON, Nov 9 : The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Monday it had opened a recall query into Alphabet’s self-driving unit Waymo after numerous incidents of its robotaxis passing stopped school buses.
The probe will look into nearly 3,000 company-owned self-driving vehicles. Investigators want to determine whether a software update Waymo rolled out late last year failed to stop its driverless cars from passing school buses with flashing red lights. Most of the violations happened after the company said the remedy had been deployed.
In October 2025, NHTSA opened a preliminary evaluation into the issue of Waymo vehicles illegally passing stopped school buses. The agency closed that investigation on Monday in favor of the new recall query to determine the cause of the additional violations.
In Austin, Texas, the independent school district documented 19 distinct violations and issued numerous $300 tickets to Waymo. Six other violations were recorded by public schools in Atlanta.
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NHTSA said it was reviewing the software update implemented by Waymo under a December 2025 recall. The auto safety regulator said most of the incidents occurred after November 2025, when Waymo said it had completed the software remedy for all affected vehicles.
The recall query will assess the adequacy of the remedy and determine the causes of the post-remedy incidents, NHTSA said.
“We have made significant improvements to vehicle behavior around school buses and have received no citations since March,” Waymo said in a statement. It said it will respond to NHTSA’s query and “look forward to continuing our engagement on recall processes for AV software that continues to learn and improve.”
Separately, NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board have opened probes after one of Waymo’s self-driving vehicles struck a child in January near an elementary school in Santa Monica, California.
The NTSB is also investigating the incidents of Waymo vehicles passing stopped school buses.
Source: Reuters
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