Federal regulators are examining whether Waymo’s voluntary software recall for its robotaxis was actually effective after reports showed vehicles continuing to pass stopped school buses.
NHTSA Opens Recall Query
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an investigation on Friday to assess whether the Waymo update worked, noting that “a majority of incidents occurred after the … remedy date,” as reported by Engadget. The inquiry stems from the NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation and follows Waymo’s late 2025 software recall, which was initiated after a previous agency probe uncovered robotaxis driving past stopped school buses with flashing red lights and deployed stop sign arms in Austin, Texas, and Atlanta, Georgia.
Although the software update was deployed across the complete robotaxi fleet and finished in November 2025, the new probe aims to evaluate if the fix resolved the issue and to “identify the causes of the conditions leading to the post-remedy reports.” Engadget reached out to Waymo for a statement regarding the investigation.
Additional Federal Investigations
Alongside the recall evaluation, the NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation initiated a separate probe into a January incident where a Waymo robotaxi struck a child in Santa Monica, California. Furthermore, the National Transportation Safety Board launched an independent federal investigation earlier this year into how Waymo autonomous vehicles operate near stopped school buses.
