— Waymo (Google) self-driving vehicles and school buses don’t get along, a fact reflected in a recall of more than 3,000 Waymo automated driving systems.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation in October following media reports of automated Waymo vehicles driving past school bus warnings.
The Waymo recall affects 5th Generation Automated Driving System (ADS) software beginning with the driverless software version dated August 20, 2025 and prior to the driverless software version dated November 5, 2025.
Problems with school buses were reported in Georgia and Texas, with the self-driving Waymo vehicles stopping or stopping in front of a school bus with flashing red lights and/or extended stop arms. The problem was that the Waymos kept going before the school buses turned off their lights and arms.
Waymo’s recall documents describe the “reasoning” used by the automated system:
“Waymo has designed the ADS with features that prevent it from impeding the progress of priority vehicles in the community, such as public buses and school buses. There may be instances where the school bus has turned off the flashing lights and/or retracted the stop arm while yielding to the school bus and has determined that it may be interfering with the school bus or another priority vehicle, and then reasons that it should move on so as to no longer impede the other vehicle.”
The obvious problem, aside from the fact that it’s illegal, is how passing a stationary school bus could result in a collision with something or someone, but Waymo says there have been no such reports.
The company also says that the ADS’s “entire sensor suite, designed to detect and avoid vulnerable road users and collisions, remained fully functional while driving past a stationary school bus.”
However, in less than two months, Waymo was hit with 12 lawsuits over automated vehicles driving past school bus warnings.
And while this is called a “recall,” it won’t affect consumers because consumers don’t own the automated vehicles. Additionally, the recall has just been announced, but the automated Waymo vehicles have been fixed via a November 17 automated driving system software update.
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