US safety board opens probe into Waymo robotaxis passing stopped school buses

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Friday it is opening an investigation into self-driving car company Waymo after its robotaxis illegally passed stopped school buses in Austin, Texas, at least 19 times since the start of the school year.

The Alphabet  unit in December recalled more than 3,000 vehicles to update the software that had caused vehicles to drive past stopped school buses that were loading or unloading students, increasing the risk of a crash. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a probe in October into Waymo vehicles near school buses.

Waymo said Friday there were no collisions in the incidents and said its self-driving system known as the Waymo Driver “safely navigates thousands of school bus encounters weekly across the United States, and the Waymo Driver is continuously improving.” Waymo added it is “confident that our safety performance around school buses is superior to human drivers.”

In a November 20 letter posted by NHTSA, the Austin Independent School District said five incidents occurred in November after Waymo software updates to resolve the issue. The school system asked the company to halt operations around schools during pick-up and drop-off times until it could ensure the vehicles would not violate the law. In December, the school district told Reuters that Waymo had refused to halt operations around schools.

“We cannot allow Waymo to continue endangering our students while it attempts to implement a fix,” a lawyer for the school district wrote, saying a Waymo was “recorded driving past a stopped school bus only moments after a student crossed in front of the vehicle, and while the student was still in the road.”