The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a recall query covering 2,895 Waymo vehicles after reports that robotaxis continued to pass stopped school buses with flashing red lights and extended stop arms. Reuters reported the agency is examining whether Waymo’s December 2025 software remedy adequately addressed the problem. The query is an investigation of that earlier remedy, not an announcement of a new recall or a final finding of a defect.

What the new Waymo query examines

The query concerns 2,895 vehicles and the performance of software Waymo said it deployed in November 2025. NHTSA is reviewing reports of vehicles passing school buses after the company said the update was complete. The agency’s review will determine whether the earlier remedy addressed the reported behavior; opening a query does not itself establish that the software failed in every reported case.

The distinction matters because the agency is revisiting the adequacy of a previous fix. A recall query can lead to further investigation or other regulatory action, but this announcement alone does not say that owners must take new action.

Background: the earlier software remedy

In December 2025, Waymo filed a recall affecting 3,067 fifth-generation automated driving system units after identifying a risk that some vehicles could proceed around a stopped school bus before its warning lights and stop arms were no longer active. The filing described a software remedy. NHTSA’s current query asks whether that remedy resolved the concern in practice.

A separate National Transportation Safety Board investigation documents a January 12 incident in Austin in which a Waymo vehicle initially stopped for a school bus, then proceeded while the bus’s stop arms remained extended. The NTSB reported that six vehicles passed the bus and that no crash occurred. That investigation provides context for the safety issue, but it is not a finding about every incident in the new NHTSA query.

What happens next

NHTSA’s review will assess reports received after Waymo said the software fix was in place. The agency has not announced the outcome of that assessment. The available records therefore support a focused account of the regulator’s review and the earlier remedy, while leaving open whether further action will follow.

Readers can follow related vehicle-safety coverage in The Globuzz Autos section.

Sources

Reuters: NHTSA opens recall query into Waymo vehicles over school-bus safety; NHTSA’s December 2025 recall filing; NTSB investigation page for the Austin school-bus incident.