Waymo's School Bus Fix Fell Flat, NHTSA Opens Recall Review

Waymo's driverless taxis keep rolling past stopped school buses, and US regulators have seen enough. NHTSA has opened a recall review into nearly 3,000 of the Alphabet subsidiary's robotaxis, examining why a software update deployed at the end of 2025 failed to stop vehicles from overtaking buses with their red lights flashing.

The timeline is awkward for Waymo. The company said in November 2025 that a fix had been installed across all affected vehicles — yet the majority of the recorded violations came after that measure, according to Electrive. NHTSA closed out a preliminary investigation it began in October 2025 and moved straight into the new probe.

Texas and Georgia have already logged the damage. Austin documented 19 incidents, with Waymo fined US$300 for each one. Atlanta recorded at least six more violations.

Waymo pushed back in a statement, saying its vehicles' behaviour around school buses has improved since March and that no further fines have been issued.

The school bus cases aren't the only heat on Waymo. NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board are running separate investigations into a 23 January 2026 crash near an elementary school in Santa Monica, California, where a robotaxi collided with a child.

The run of incidents has sharpened the argument over how safe autonomous vehicles really are. Critics and experts say Waymo's celebrated safety numbers largely reflect the fact that its cars have mostly operated in tightly controlled, precisely mapped areas at low speeds — and that no autonomous system delivers absolute safety.