Onyx Bugett | TalkLife News
November 9, 2026 · News update · Transportation safety · Developing
Federal vehicle-safety regulators have opened a review of whether Waymo’s software remedy stopped its automated vehicles from passing school buses while children were boarding or leaving. The recall query covers 2,895 fifth-generation automated driving systems and became public in reporting Monday, November 9.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s opening document dates the action to November 6. It says investigators identified reports of vehicles passing stopped buses with red lights flashing or stop arms extended.
Waymo filed recall 25E084 on December 10, 2025, to address that behavior, the document says. The recall report identified November 17, 2025, as the date the software remedy had been completed across affected vehicles. NHTSA says a majority of the incidents identified during its earlier investigation occurred after that remedy date.
The question is the remedy’s effectiveness
The distinction matters: issuing a software update is one step; establishing that it corrects a safety problem is another. The new proceeding examines the remedy after additional reports, rather than treating deployment alone as the end of the issue.
Reuters reported November 9 that the query will assess both the adequacy of the fix and the causes of incidents reported afterward. An investigation is an evidence-gathering process; the opening notice does not supply a final determination about those causes.
The safety rule protects children outside the bus
NHTSA’s school-bus guidance explains why the surrounding road matters: children may cross while getting on or off. Red flashing lights and an extended stop arm signal that boarding or unloading is underway. Drivers must follow their state’s school-bus rules and remain stopped as required.
The agency also advises families to have children wait away from the curb, approach only after the bus stops and the driver permits boarding, and tell the driver if an item falls near the bus instead of retrieving it themselves.
For communities evaluating automated transportation, the concrete issue is how a system behaves around a familiar, high-risk situation. The next material findings will concern whether the earlier remedy was adequate and what explains the subsequent reports. Those findings remain pending.