Waymo investigated by National Transportation Safety Board for illegal school bus practices

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has launched an investigation after Waymo’s robotaxi was observed on multiple occasions illegally passing stopped school buses in at least two states.

The NTSB is specifically focusing on more than 20 incidents that occurred in Austin, Texas, the agency said in a post to X on Friday.

“Investigators will travel to Austin to gather information about a series of incidents in which automated vehicles failed to stop while picking up or dropping off students,” the NTSB said in a statement to TechCrunch. A preliminary report is expected within 30 days, and the safety committee is expected to release a more detailed final report within 12 to 24 months.

This is the first time Waymo has been investigated by the NTSB, but it is only the second time Waymo has been investigated over the school bus issue. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Office of Defect Investigation began a similar investigation in October.

Waymo also announced a software recall last year to fix the problem. But previous software updates alone weren’t enough to eradicate it, and in Austin, Texas, where most of the incidents were captured on camera, the school district asked the company to suspend operations during pickup and drop-off times.

The new survey comes as Waymo continues its rapid expansion across the United States. Just this week, the company began offering robotaxi services in Miami and has added locations in Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix and the San Francisco Bay Area.

“We safely operate thousands of school buses every week across the United States, and Waymo Driver is constantly improving. In the incident in question, there were no crashes, and we are confident that our safety performance around school buses is superior to that of human drivers,” Mauricio Peña, Waymo’s chief safety officer, said in a statement to TechCrunch. “We see this as an opportunity to provide the NTSB with transparent insight into our safety-first approach.”

The NTSB differs from NHTSA in that it is not a federal regulatory agency. Fines or penalties cannot be imposed. Rather, safety committees typically conduct in-depth investigations to determine the root cause of problems in the transportation sector. Once the investigation is complete, the board often holds hearings and issues non-binding recommendations.

The first notable incident in which a Waymo vehicle passed a stopped school bus occurred last September in Atlanta. The Waymo pulled out of the driveway and crossed straight across the front of the school bus on the right side of the bus. The robotaxi turned left and ran down the street as the kids got off the bus.

Waymo said the vehicle was unable to see a stop sign or flashing lights at the time, and that it has since addressed this particular scenario with a software update.

However, as Waymo patched up a specific scenario it faced in Atlanta, some of the company’s vehicles were caught passing a stopped school bus in Austin, Texas. Local news outlet KXAN released video received from cameras mounted on school buses showing Waymo vehicles driving illegally on multiple occasions.

“We continue to work productively with the Austin Independent School District and applaud their reported success in reducing human-initiated violations around school buses by more than 10,000 per year,” Peña said.