Feds Probe Waymo Over How Its Robotaxis Behave Around School Buses

America’s auto-safety watchdog is taking a hard look at Waymo’s driverless cars — specifically, how they handle the most sensitive road situation of all: a stopped school bus, Reuters reports.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Monday it opened a preliminary investigation into roughly 2,000 Waymo vehicles after an incident where a robotaxi allegedly crept past a bus with red lights flashing, stop arm out, and kids getting off. According to the report NHTSA flagged, the Waymo initially stopped, then steered around the front of the bus — passing the extended stop arm and crossing gate — while students were disembarking. The vehicle was running Waymo’s fifth-generation automated driving system and had no human safety driver on board.

Waymo, owned by Alphabet, says it’s already shipped changes aimed at improving school-bus behavior and has more software fixes coming in its next release. “Driving safely around children has always been one of Waymo’s highest priorities,” the company said, adding that in the cited case the robotaxi approached from an angle where the flashing lights and stop sign weren’t visible and proceeded slowly while keeping distance from children.

The probe underscores a broader regulatory focus on how driverless systems mix with real-world road users — pedestrians, cyclists, and now, kids. It also comes as Waymo scales up: the company says it runs more than 1,500 robotaxis across Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Austin, with international launches on the roadmap in cities like Tokyo and London.

For now, NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation will gather data and evaluate whether there’s a defect or compliance issue. If the agency finds a safety problem, it can escalate to an engineering analysis and potentially order a recall — software or otherwise. Waymo’s bet on self-driving at city scale is growing fast; how its cars behave when the stop arm swings out could help determine how fast regulators let it keep going.