US Regulator Questions Waymo's School Bus Fix After Robotaxis Kept Passing Stopped Buses

In a filing dated November 6, the agency's Office of Defects Investigation said it had opened a recall query to "assess the adequacy of the remedy" Waymo deployed under a voluntary recall in December 2025, and to determine what caused the incidents that followed it. The query covers 2,895 vehicles, according to Reuters, which first reported the filing. That is fewer than the more than 3,000 vehicles with Waymo's fifth-generation automated driving system that were included in the original recall; the agency did not explain the difference in the reports available.

The inquiry goes to the heart of how autonomous vehicles are regulated. Waymo, owned by Alphabet, fixes driving behaviour through software updates pushed to its fleet rather than through physical repairs, and regulators largely rely on those updates working as described. Waymo said last year that the update was completed for all affected vehicles on November 17, 2025. NHTSA now says the majority of the incidents it has reviewed occurred after that date.

The agency first opened a preliminary investigation in October 2025 after seeing footage from Atlanta of a Waymo robotaxi manoeuvring around a school bus that had stopped with its lights flashing and stop arm extended while children were getting off. According to the agency's earlier account, the vehicle crossed in front of the bus from its right side, then turned left around the front of the bus and continued down the street.

Similar incidents followed in Austin, Texas, where Waymo also runs a robotaxi service. The Austin Independent School District recorded 19 distinct violations, Reuters reported, including one in which a driverless car briefly stopped and then moved on while a student was crossing the street. Atlanta Public Schools recorded six violations.

Waymo announced its voluntary software recall in December 2025, saying the update would make its cars slow down appropriately and stay stationary next to stopped school buses. Passing a school bus that is loading or unloading children with its red lights flashing is illegal across US states.

The school bus issue is not the only federal safety review Waymo faces. In January 2026, NHTSA opened a separate investigation after a Waymo vehicle struck a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica, California.

A recall query is the step NHTSA uses to examine whether a manufacturer's recall has fixed the defect it was meant to address. Waymo had not publicly responded to the new filing in the reports available; TechCrunch said it had asked the company and Austin school officials for comment. The outcome will determine whether Waymo has to go back to its fleet with a further remedy while it continues to expand its commercial service.