The US road safety regulator is checking whether a software fix stopped Waymo’s driverless cars from passing school buses, after more incidents followed it. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on 9 November that it has opened a recall query covering 2,895 Waymo vehicles, Reuters reported.
In December 2025 Waymo recalled 3,067 vehicles. Its cars, having stopped for a school bus, sometimes drove on while the bus’s red lights were still flashing or its stop arm was out. Waymo told NHTSA the update reached every affected car by 17 November 2025 and said it knew of 12 traffic citations and no collisions.
NHTSA said most of the incidents happened after November 2025, when Waymo said it had finished applying the fix. The review will assess whether the remedy was adequate and what caused the later incidents. A recall query is a review, not a finding of fault, though it can lead to a further recall.
Why it matters: driverless cars can be fixed over the air in days, which makes recalls fast. This query tests the other half: whether regulators check that a fix works on real streets, around children.
Source: NHTSA recall report 25E084