A robotaxi stopped for a school bus and asked a remote helper about it. The answer was "No."

Previously

In May 2025, Waymo recalled software on 1,212 vehicles over collisions with gates and chains (Part 1). In December, it recalled software on 3,067 vehicles after its cars passed stopped school buses; Austin's school district had documented 19 incidents (Part 2).

AUSTIN, March 2026 — The school bus problem didn't end with the recall. Here's what changed since Part 2 (December 2025), what it cost, and what went wrong.

Cost and outcome (as of March 2026)

Violations reported in Austin since the start of the 2025 school year: at least 24, The Verge reported. (The Verge)
Violations after the software update (deployed Nov. 5 to 17, 2025): at least four, including one on Jan. 19, per Austin ISD as reported by The Verge on Feb. 5. Part 2's "at least five" was the district's December count (see below). (The Verge)
Jan. 12 incident: six vehicles, including the Waymo, passed the stopped bus. No crash. (NTSB)
Vehicles recalled in December: 3,067. (NHTSA recall 25E084)
Open federal reviews: NHTSA's PE25013 (opened Oct. 17, 2025) and the NTSB's HWY26FH007. (NTSB)
Cost to Waymo: not disclosed.

What the NTSB found

At about 7:55 a.m. on Jan. 12, 2026, an Austin ISD bus stopped in the 1700 block of East Oltorf Street to pick up students, with red lights strobing and two stop arms out. The speed limit was 35 mph, and the road was dry in daylight. The bus had external cameras, including stop-arm cameras that record vehicles that fail to stop. An unoccupied Waymo Jaguar I-Pace, coming the other way, was "the first vehicle to stop for the school bus," according to video evidence the NTSB cites.

Once stopped, the car sent remote assistance a prompt: "is this a school bus with active signals?" Remote assistance is advice a remotely located person gives a driverless car. After three passenger cars had passed the bus in the adjacent westbound lane and another passed in the right eastbound lane, "a remote assistance agent located in Novi, Michigan, replied 'No' to the prompt," the NTSB says. The Waymo then passed the bus with its stop arms still extended. In all, six vehicles passed.

The NTSB's investigation also covers a Jan. 14 incident with a bus on a special-needs route. Waymo and Austin ISD are parties. The findings are preliminary, and the NTSB hasn't determined a probable cause.

After the recall

The stakes are high. NHTSA attributed 61 fatalities to vehicles illegally passing school buses between 2000 and 2023, almost half of them pedestrians under 18, The Verge reported.

The Verge's DeGeurin reported on Feb. 5 that, since the update, Austin ISD says "at least four additional violations have occurred," including one on Jan. 19, when a Waymo was filmed going through the opposite lane as children waited to board. In early December, TechCrunch reported that a district letter counted at least five incidents after Waymo said it had updated its software (Part 2). Neither report says whether the four come on top of those five, and we haven't seen the district's own list. The Verge also noted that Waymo said one of its vehicles struck a child outside a Santa Monica elementary school on Jan. 23; the school district told The Washington Post the child's injuries were minor.

At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Wednesday, Feb. 4, Waymo Chief Safety Officer Mauricio Peña said: "We are evaluating every one of those events and developing fixes to address them." He added that Waymo was "working with the Austin Independent School District to collect data on different lighting patterns and different conditions," according to CBS News' account of his testimony. The Verge said Waymo "didn't commit to stop operating around school buses" during that work, and that Waymo refused the district's request to pause.

"I think it's concerning that Waymo wouldn't agree to that," Missy Cummings, director of George Mason University's Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center, told The Verge. "You're only talking about truly an hour and a half, 45 minutes in the morning and 45 minutes in the afternoon."

What's changed

The December recall framed this as software logic, which a November hotfix addressed. The NTSB's account adds a person: the car did stop and ask, and a remote helper answered "No" while the stop arms were out. The software fix alone didn't end the violations.

What went wrong

A human check failed. The car asked the right question, and the remote agent's "No" sent it past the bus.
The recall didn't end it. Austin ISD reports at least four additional violations after the update (The Verge, Feb. 5), after a December count of at least five (TechCrunch, Dec. 5).
Waymo kept driving at school times, The Verge reported, despite the district's request.
What we don't know yet: why the remote agent answered "No," how Waymo trains and checks remote assistance staff, and what the NTSB will conclude.

Our follow-up question for Waymo

What has Waymo changed in how remote assistance agents handle school bus prompts since Jan. 12?

Later developments (added Oct. 2026)

Waymo's newer Ojai robotaxi is built on a vehicle made by Zeekr, a brand owned by China's Geely Holding Group, Axios reported Sept. 1, 2026. Waymo says it complies with US connected-vehicle rules because Zeekr supplies only the basic vehicle and Waymo installs its own self-driving and connectivity technology in Arizona. (Axios)
As of Oct. 25, 2026, the NTSB lists HWY26FH007 as "Ongoing." We haven't confirmed whether NHTSA has closed PE25013. (NTSB)

Sources

National Transportation Safety Board, HWY26FH007, preliminary information, released Mar. 3, 2026. ntsb.gov
Mack DeGeurin, The Verge, “Why Waymo is having a hard time stopping for school buses,” Feb. 5, 2026. theverge.com
Waymo LLC, Part 573 Safety Recall Report 25E084, submitted Dec. 10, 2025. static.nhtsa.gov
Joann Muller, Axios, “Waymo's cheaper robotaxis collide with China crackdown,” Sept. 1, 2026. axios.com
Kirsten Korosec, TechCrunch, “Waymo to issue software recall over how robotaxis behave around school buses,” Dec. 5, 2025. techcrunch.com
Earlier in this series: Part 1. /case/waymo-recalls-gates-chains
Earlier in this series: Part 2. /case/waymo-recalls-school-buses
CBS News, “Tesla and Waymo executives defend the safety of self-driving cars before Senate committee,” Feb. 4, 2026. cbsnews.com

Disclosure: [not in copy] Editor placeholder