Overview
- NHTSA on Monday opened a formal recall query into about 2,895 Waymo vehicles to assess whether the company’s filed software remedy fixed a defect that let robotaxis pass stopped school buses with flashing red lights or extended stop arms.
- Federal filings show a majority of reported school‑bus‑passing incidents occurred after Waymo said it completed a mid‑November 2025 software update and after the company issued a voluntary recall in December 2025 covering roughly 3,000 Jaguar I‑Pace robotaxis.
- Local school districts documented repeated violations after the update, with the Austin Independent School District reporting about 19 incidents and Atlanta schools reporting several more, and districts issued citations to Waymo vehicles.
- The NTSB’s preliminary work found a remote assistance operator error in a January Austin case where an operator told a vehicle it was not facing a bus and the car then proceeded, and NHTSA also opened a probe after a January collision that injured a child near a Santa Monica school.
- Regulators are now examining both the software remedy and human operational practices because over‑the‑air, continuously learning updates complicate traditional recall rules and the outcome could prompt fines, tighter oversight of remote operators, or limits on robotaxi operations near schools.