Waymo Recalls Self-Driving Taxis After Reported School Bus Incident: Car Addicts

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Waymo is under renewed federal scrutiny after a reported incident involving one of its fully driverless robot taxis and a stopped school bus in Atlanta. What began as a preliminary investigation of approximately 2,000 self-driving vehicles has now evolved into an official recall affecting 3,067 Waymo taxis equipped with the company’s 5th generation automated driving system. Essentially, the question is whether the software correctly handled one of the most delicate situations in road traffic, a school bus with children getting out.

According to investigative documents, the incident occurred on September 22, 2025. A Waymo taxi, operating without a human driver, approached a school bus that was stopped with red lights flashing and stop sign and control arms extended. According to reports, the robotaxi initially stopped next to the bus and then drove around the bus and along the opposite side while the students got off. For regulators and parents alike, this is the kind of behavior that immediately raises red flags.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation opened a case focused on Waymo’s fifth-generation automated driving system to understand how the vehicle made this decision. In its recall request, the agency points to software logic that could allow taxis to pass stopped school buses even when the red lights are flashing and the stop arm is extended. Waymo says the problematic software version was installed on November 5th and that a corrective update was deployed to the entire affected fleet by November 17th, effectively fixing the issue over the air.

Waymo, for its part, has noted the investigation and said it has already made changes to improve the behavior of its vehicles in similar situations, with further improvements planned. A company spokesperson explained that in the Atlanta case, the school bus partially blocked a driveway that the robotaxi was attempting to exit and that the vehicle did not have a clear view of the bus’s warning lights or stop sign. This explanation may help frame the technical challenge, but does little to assuage the broader concern that an automated system has still misjudged a scenario in which human drivers are expected to exercise extreme caution.

For the entire autonomous driving industry, this recall is another reminder that public trust depends on how these vehicles perform in the most vulnerable traffic environments, not just on how smoothly they handle highway travel or downtown gridlock. School zones and school buses are non-negotiable safety zones in the eyes of regulators and the public, and any misstep there will attract significant attention. As Waymo and its competitors push ahead with the rollout of driverless services in cities across the country, they must prove that their software can consistently outperform a conscientious human in exactly these high-risk, low-margin situations.

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