NHTSA investigates Waymo for school bus safety – Jalopnik

Happy Monday! It’s October 20, 2025 and this is The Morning Shift: your daily digest of the most important car news from around the world, in one place. Here are the top stories shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In this morning’s edition, we look at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s new investigation into the behavior of Waymo robotaxis near school buses, as well as the latest shortages hitting U.S. auto factories. We’ll also look at the effects of the ongoing government shutdown on air travel, and another Ford recall.

While automakers are beating their heads against the wall of autonomous driving, Waymo has built one of the more elaborate offerings in the robotaxi space. But it appears the software still needs to learn some very basic driving skills, as it is now under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for driving around a stopped school bus and flashing red stop sign. By Reuters:

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Monday it has opened a preliminary investigation into about 2,000 self-driving Waymo vehicles after reports that the company’s robotaxis may have failed to comply with traffic safety laws surrounding stopped school buses.

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NHTSA said the Office of Defects Investigation opened the review after flagging a media report detailing an incident in which an autonomous Waymo vehicle failed to stop when approaching a school bus with flashing red lights, extended stop arm and extended control arm.

According to the report, the Waymo vehicle initially stopped next to the bus and then maneuvered around the front, past the extended stop arm and crossed the control arm as the students disembarked.

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NHTSA said the vehicle involved was equipped with Waymo’s fifth-generation Automated Driving System (ADS) and was operating without a human driver at the time of the incident.

I have to say that I have never seen a taxi or a yellow cab driving around a school bus while it was unloading children – another point for human drivers.

Remember when a semiconductor shortage in 2020 plunged the entire automotive world into years of poor sales and dealer profits? Well, don’t look now, but we might be ready for another hit – only this time, on multiple fronts. From the Wall Street Journal:

Assembly lines at a Michigan plant that produces luxury Jeep SUVs were shut down last week and won’t resume production until early next month. The cause, according to an official of the United Auto Workers, is an aluminum shortage.

Ford has halted production at three factories for the same reason. Between the two automakers, thousands of workers in Michigan and Kentucky are now unemployed.

The automotive supply chain – a vast web of companies around the world – is in the spotlight in a way it hasn’t been since the early 1920s, when a serious shortage of semiconductor chips has hampered the industry. From then on, car drivers routinely teach a lesson: don’t rely too heavily on one supplier. Now stocks of multiple items are cleared at the same time.

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In September, a three-alarm fire affected one Aluminum factory in New Yorkwhich will take production offline until early next year. The shutdown has disrupted production schedules for profitable Ford models and now expensive Jeep SUVs. A spokesman for Jeep maker Stellantis said a parts shortage caused the closure of the Michigan plant, but declined to specify which part was affected.

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At the same time, a strange and ongoing geopolitical dispute is adding to worries that car production around the world could be upended within weeks. Nexperia, a Netherlands-based chipmaker, shut down shipments this month after the Dutch government took control of the company from its Chinese owner.

The United States has imposed tariffs on aluminum, so bringing in metals from abroad can be prohibitively expensive for companies looking to make a profit. Without this American factory, we could be without aluminum for a while. Add to that China’s export controls on magnets, chip sourcing issues, and the general stagflation of our trade war world, and maybe you should just plan to keep your current car for a while.

Air traffic controllers and TSA workers are federal employees, but the federal government is currently shut down due to some stupid fighting. As such, these workers are not being paid – and their agencies are facing staff shortages. By Reuters:

The Federal Aviation Administration said late Sunday that air traffic control staffing issues were slowing travel at airports in Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta and Newark as the U.S. government shutdown reached its 19th day.

The FAA said numerous staffing recommendations had been received for the evening shift and that flights could also be delayed in Las Vegas and Phoenix due to air traffic control absences.

FlightAware said more than 5,800 flights were delayed on Sunday. Weather problems and a Formula 1 race in Austin also affected the flights.

According to FlightAware, more than 20% of American Airlines and Southwest Airlines flights were delayed on Sunday.

About 13,000 air traffic controllers and about 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officials are required to work during the government shutdown but are not paid.

Air traffic controllers are to use their sick and vacation days during the closuresince they don’t get paid anyway. I can’t honestly say I blame them.

What the heck is happening at Ford? The company issued two more recalls, covering 624,679 Mustangs and Super Duty pickups. If you’re playing the Ford Recall Drinking Game, have a drink, but maybe make sure someone is watching you soberly. This is starting to become an unsustainable amount of booze. By Automotive News:

According to NHTSA reports, Ford Motor Co. two recalls in the US for a total of 624,679 vehicles.

One recall affects 332,778 vehicles due to a seat belt problem, the Sept. 12 report said. The other affects 291,901 vehicles due to an issue with the rearview camera display, according to an Oct. 10 report.

The seat belt recall affects certain 2015-2017 Ford Mustangs, with 11 percent of the recall population expected to have the defect, NHTSA said.

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The rearview camera image recall affects 2020-22 Ford F-250 Super Duty, Ford F-350 Super Duty and Ford F-450 Super Duty trucks, NHTSA said. The entire recall population is expected to exhibit the defect.

What percentage of Ford vehicles from the last decade have been recalled at this point, I wonder? Has Ford recalled more cars in the US this year than it sold in 2025?

Wasn’t there anything better going on in early October, before the Cuban Missile Crisis?

New Courtney Barnett! Did anyone have that on their 2025 bingo card?