To prevent its robotaxi fleet from passing stopped school buses, Waymo is issuing another software recall in 2025. While it’s not a traditional recall that pulls vehicles from the road, Waymo is voluntarily updating software for its autonomous fleet in response to an investigation from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. According to Waymo, the recall will be filed with the federal agency early next week.
Mauricio Peña, Waymo’s chief safety officer, said in a statement that Waymo sees far fewer crashes involving pedestrians than human drivers, but that the company knows when “our behavior should be better.”
“As a result, we have made the decision to file a voluntary software recall with NHTSA related to appropriately slowing and stopping in these scenarios,” Peña said in a statement to multiple news outlets. “We will continue analyzing our vehicles’ performance and making necessary fixes as part of our commitment to continuous improvement.”
According to the NHTSA investigation, some Waymo autonomous vehicles were seen failing to stop for school buses that had their stop signs and flashing lights deployed. The federal agency said in the report that there were instances of Waymo cars driving past stopped school buses in Atlanta and Austin, Texas.
Earlier this year, Waymo issued another software recall after some of its robotaxi fleet were seen hitting gates, chains, and similar objects. Last year, Waymo also filed two other software recalls, one of which addressed a fleet vehicle crashing into a telephone pole and another correcting how two separate robotaxis hit the same exact pickup truck that was being towed.
