NHTSA Opens Recall Query Into Waymo School Bus Fix, Says Most Incidents Came After the Update

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a recall query into Waymo's school bus recall, and the agency's opening finding is a bad one for the company: a majority of the reported incidents happened after the fix was in.

The filing is dated Friday, Nov. 6. NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation says the query will assess whether the remedy for Recall 25E084 was adequate and identify the causes of the post-remedy reports. It covers 2,895 vehicles equipped with Waymo's fifth-generation automated driving system.

The timeline

Waymo filed Recall 25E084 on Dec. 10, 2025. The problem it addressed: a Waymo vehicle could pass a stopped school bus with its red lights flashing or its stop arm extended.

Waymo's recall report said every affected vehicle had received the over-the-air software update by Nov. 17, 2025. NHTSA now says a majority of the incidents it has logged came after that date.

The agency described a large number of reported incidents and called the problem continued violations, particularly when a bus is boarding or offboarding students. The investigation file lists traffic citations from Austin Independent School District among the reports.

How it started

NHTSA opened its original investigation in October 2025 after video surfaced of a Waymo vehicle in Atlanta going around a school bus that was halted with its stop sign out, lights flashing and children getting off. The robotaxi crossed in front of the bus, turned left around its front and drove on.

Austin, where Waymo also runs a service, produced more cases. Austin ISD told NHTSA in a letter that it had logged at least five incidents by that point. Waymo's December recall cited 19 instances of its vehicles illegally passing school buses since the start of that school year.

In announcing the recall, Waymo Chief Safety Officer Mauricio Peña said the company would "continue analyzing vehicle performance and making necessary fixes."

Waymo's position

Waymo points to its recent record. "We have made significant improvements to vehicle behavior around school buses and have received no citations since March 2026," a company spokesperson said by email.

The spokesperson added that the Waymo Driver has a "clearly demonstrated positive impact on roadway safety." The company said it will respond to NHTSA's query once it receives it, and that it looks forward to continuing its work with the agency on recall processes for autonomous vehicle software that "continues to learn and improve."

Those two statements can both be true. A lack of citations since March does not say how many incidents occurred between the November update and then, which is the period NHTSA is focused on. Citations also depend on someone writing one.

Not the only open file

The school bus query is one of several federal matters involving Waymo this year:

• The National Transportation Safety Board has opened its own investigation into Waymo vehicles passing stopped school buses with warning lights on.
• A separate NHTSA inquiry is examining a January collision between a Waymo vehicle and a child outside an elementary school in Santa Monica, California.
• In June, Waymo recalled 3,871 robotaxis over a software flaw that sent vehicles into closed freeway construction zones.

What a recall query is

A recall query is a review of whether an earlier recall actually solved the problem. It is not a finding that the fix failed, and no new recall has been ordered. NHTSA has said it will look at why the post-remedy incidents occurred.

The rule at issue is about as basic as traffic law gets. When a school bus stops with its lights flashing and its stop arm out, you stop. Human drivers who ignore it face fines and, in many states, serious penalties. A company running thousands of driverless vehicles in expanding markets is held to the same standard, and the stakes are children stepping off a bus.

The open question is what NHTSA finds when it digs into the data. Waymo has not yet responded to the query itself, and the agency has not said whether it will seek a revised remedy covering the 2,895 vehicles.