Self-driving ride-hailing service Waymo filed a voluntary software recall after more than a dozen of its vehicles illegally passed stopped school buses in Texas and Georgia.
According to a Nov. 8 notice from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the recall affects certain 5th-generation automated driving systems, which ultimately removed 3,067 robotaxis from the road. The software may cause vehicles to pass a stopped school bus even when its red lights are flashing or its stop arm is extended, the agency wrote.
“While we are incredibly proud of our strong safety record showing Waymo experiences twelve times fewer injury crashes involving pedestrians than human drivers, holding the highest safety standards means recognizing when our behavior should be better,” Waymo’s Chief Safety Officer Mauricio Peña said in a statement. “As a result, we have made the decision to file a voluntary software recall with NHTSA related to appropriately slowing and stopping in these scenarios. We will continue analyzing our vehicles’ performance and making necessary fixes as part of our commitment to continuous improvement.”
A Waymo spokesperson told CBS in December that the company had identified the software issue that contributed to the school bus incidents and that it had repaired affected vehicles by Nov. 17.
NHTSA Launched Waymo Investigation in October
NHTSA first launched a probe into Waymo back in October after Atlanta Public Schools reported six cases where the self-driving cars illegally passed its school buses. School bus video surveillance from a September incident in Atlanta shows a Waymo car passing the bus while its stop arm is deployed and red lights are flashing.
As of Dec. 5, the Austin Independent School District also said it was aware of 20 incidents this school year in which a Waymo vehicle illegally passed a school bus. In one instance, the Waymo vehicle reportedly drove past the stopped bus “only moments after a student crossed in front of the vehicle, and while the student was still in the road,” according to a letter from the school district.
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JJ Maldonado, a communications specialist for the district, told CBS that the 20th citation was issued after Waymo said it had fixed the software issue.
NHTSA investigators sent a list of detailed questions about the incidents to Waymo as part of its inquiry, NPR reports. The agency asked Waymo to document similar incidents and provide information about how it responded. The company has until Jan. 20 to respond.
Georgia Lawmakers Push for Stricter Oversight of Self-Driving Cars
Georgia passed Addy’s Law in 2024, stiffening penalties for those who illegally pass a stopped school bus. The legislation was named after 8-year-old Addy Pierce, a student who was killed in Henry County after she was struck while crossing the street to get to her bus, 11 Alive reports.
“I’m a big fan of new technologies and emerging technologies and I think that driverless cars are going to become more prevalent, but we got to think about how they’re going to comply with the law,” Georgia State Representative Clint Crowe, a co-sponsor of the legislation, told 11 Alive. “The majority of our traffic laws, the penalty is usually a fine and or driver’s license suspension. These cars don’t have a driver, so they don’t have a driver’s license and so we’re really going to have to rethink who’s the responsible party, who’s going to be responsible for being in control of that vehicle and who’s going to be the operator of that vehicle.”
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Georgia State Senator Rick Williams, another co-sponsor of Addy’s Law, told 39 News that he is drafting a bill to address oversight of autonomous vehicles. He said he does not intend to wait until the legislative session to push for action, asking state and federal leaders to call for a “complete stoppage” of the vehicles.
“I have sent information to the governor’s office and to Georgia Department of Transportation and reached out to our senators and congresspeople to bring this to the federal Transportation Safety Board’s attention,” Williams said. “We don’t want anyone’s child hurt or worse because of some vehicle with no one behind the steering wheel.”
Waymo: Self-Driving Cars Safer Than Human Drivers
The company says its vehicle safety data shows 90% fewer serious injury crashes and 92% fewer crashes injuring a pedestrian when compared to a human driver.
Waymo, owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, provides hundreds of thousands of driverless rides each week in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Phoenix, and Atlanta. It first started offering the service in Phoenix in Oct. 2020.
The company hopes expand to Washington, D.C., Miami, and Dallas soon, and is currently testing its service in New York City.
