Waymo Robotaxis Keep Illegally Passing School Buses After Software Fix, Federal Regulators Say
Google's autonomous vehicle unit Waymo is facing renewed scrutiny after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced it has opened a new investigation into a critical defect that allows its robotaxis to illegally pass stopped school buses with flashing red lights and extended stop arms.
The federal regulator revealed that most reported incidents occurred after Waymo had completed a software update promised to fix exactly this problem. The recall, initiated in December 2025, covered 2,895 vehicles — virtually the company's entire fleet.
The defect the software couldn't fix
The problem was first identified in October 2025, when viral videos showed a Waymo robotaxi in Atlanta maneuvering around a school bus that was unloading children. The autonomous vehicle crossed perpendicularly in front of the bus from the right side, then went around the front and continued driving — all while red lights flashed and the stop arm was extended, which is illegal in all 50 states.
Waymo issued a voluntary recall in December 2025 and stated it had completed the software fix for all affected vehicles by November 17, 2025. According to the company, the update made cars "slow down and remain stopped" when detecting a stopped school bus.
But NHTSA's data tell a different story. According to a November 6, 2026 filing, the majority of reported incidents occurred after the fix completion date. The agency opened a "recall query" to "assess the adequacy of the remedy" — one of the most serious steps in the automotive safety regulatory process.
More than a software problem
What sets this case apart from other defects successfully fixed with a software update is the temporal scale: nearly a year has passed since the correction, and incidents persist. This raises questions about the architecture of Waymo's detection system, which relies on LiDAR, cameras, and radar sensors to identify school bus stops.
The Austin Independent School District documented at least five similar incidents in Austin, Texas, where Waymo also operates. One involved an autonomous vehicle that briefly stopped but then proceeded while a child was actively crossing the street — a scenario that could have had catastrophic consequences.
The case gained further urgency when, in January 2026, NHTSA opened a separate investigation after a Waymo robotaxi struck a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica, California, during morning drop-off. The company reported the child suffered minor injuries.
The weight of scrutiny
Waymo is the most advanced robotaxi operator in the United States, with significant presence in Austin, San Antonio, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. But the combination of these two safety issues — the school bus problem and the child strike — suggests that the company's perception system still has dangerous gaps in scenarios involving pedestrians and stopped vehicles.
The company did not respond to TechCrunch's and the Austin Independent School District's requests for comment before publication.
What makes this case particularly concerning is that the fix was supposed to already be implemented. If a safety update does not resolve the original problem, the next step in NHTSA's process could be forcing the company to physically recall the affected vehicles — a scenario that would paralyze virtually the entire Waymo operation.
Sources: TechCrunch, StockAnalysis, The Claims Journal
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