Waymo Said It Fixed Its School Bus Problem. The US Government Says It

The news template wants two paragraphs under each heading. I'll keep those paragraphs inside the 40–90 word limit and count the draft before sending it.The US government is examining whether Waymo's recall of software tied to a series of school bus passing incidents last fall actually fixed the safety issue.

Several of the company's autonomous cars drove around stopped buses, and Waymo issued a software fix in mid-November plus an official voluntary recall a month later. A filing described in Wired's report says the majority of the school bus issues occurred after that date.

This article covers the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigation, a mid-January incident found by the National Transportation Safety Board, and Waymo spokesperson Dana Gallagher's account of citations since last March. It is for school staff, parents of students who ride buses, and readers who follow robotaxi recalls in the United States. The record also includes the Austin school district's half-day data collection and the civil penalties that similar recall queries have produced in years past.

01NHTSA review of the software recall

The formal investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will determine whether Waymo's supposed software fix succeeded in preventing its robotaxis from improperly passing stopped school buses. Those buses had red lights on and their stop arms extended, the indicators that they were picking up and dropping off students. The software under review is the package involved with a series of school bus passing incidents from last fall, when several autonomous cars drove around the stopped buses.

Passing stopped school buses that are picking up and dropping off students, with red lights on and stop arms extended, is illegal in all 50 states. Waymo's robotaxis made that improper pass in a series of incidents last fall, and the company later recalled the software. The problems remained, and the US government wants to know more about whether the supposed software fix stopped the illegal maneuver.

02Mid-November fix and December recall

According to a filing, Waymo issued a fix for the software issue in mid-November and an official voluntary recall a month later, the mid-December software recall. Last year the company recalled that software after several of its autonomous cars drove around stopped buses. The filing is the timeline NHTSA has for the response: a software fix first, then the official voluntary recall a month after that fix.

The government says that the majority of school bus issues occurred after the date of the official voluntary recall. Those later issues came after both the mid-November software fix and the mid-December recall had been issued, and the problems remained. Federal officials want to know more about that majority of school bus issues that still occurred after the supposed software fix.

03NTSB report of a January pass

Earlier this year, a report from the National Transportation Safety Board found that another school bus passing incident occurred in mid-January, several weeks after the supposed software fix. The NTSB is the US independent safety agency, and it is also investigating the school bus passing issue. The mid-January pass is later than the series of incidents last fall that led Waymo to issue the software fix and the voluntary recall.

The January incident came several weeks after the mid-November software fix and after the official voluntary recall in mid-December. The NTSB report from earlier this year documents that additional school bus pass while the board investigates the same issue the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has under review. An incident in mid-January, weeks after the supposed fix, is part of the record that the school bus problems remained after Waymo's recall.

04Gallagher on citations since March

In a written statement, Waymo spokesperson Dana Gallagher said the company has "made significant improvements to vehicle behavior around school buses," and that Waymo has not been cited for passing school buses since last March. Last March was months after the mid-December software recall. The statement is Waymo's account of how its robotaxis have behaved around school buses since the voluntary recall.

She wrote that Waymo looks "forward to continuing our engagement on recall processes for AV software that continues to learn and improve." In the written statement, spokesperson Dana Gallagher ties that engagement to autonomous-vehicle software that continues to learn and improve. She puts the line beside the claim of significant improvements to vehicle behavior around school buses, and beside no citations for passing school buses since last March.

05Austin parking lot and civil penalties

Late last year, the Austin school district helped set up a half-day data collection event for Waymo's vehicles and coordinated with the self-driving vehicle developer. The district brought school buses and stop-arm signals to an empty parking lot so the company could collect information. Waymo collected that information to help train the vehicles to avoid the illegal street maneuver of passing a stopped school bus.

The data collection event occurred after Waymo had issued its software fix and its official voluntary recall. Still, the incidents continued after the parking-lot session, the fix, and the recall. In years past, recall queries like this one have led to civil penalties, some of them costing automakers and software developers tens of millions of dollars.