Waymo is now under investigation by two federal agencies after its self-driving vehicles repeatedly broke the law around school buses. The National Transportation Safety Board opened a probe Friday focusing on more than 20 incidents in Austin, Texas, where Waymo robotaxis illegally passed stopped school buses while children were boarding or exiting. It's an escalation that comes just months after NHTSA launched its own investigation and Waymo issued a software recall that clearly hasn't solved the problem.
Waymo just hit a regulatory wall. The National Transportation Safety Board announced Friday it's opening an investigation into Alphabet's autonomous vehicle subsidiary after its robotaxis were caught on camera illegally passing stopped school buses more than 20 times in Austin, Texas. The move marks the first time the NTSB has ever investigated Waymo and signals mounting federal concern over the company's struggle to teach its AI systems basic traffic laws designed to protect children.
"Investigators will travel to Austin to gather information on a series of incidents in which the automated vehicles failed to stop for loading or unloading students," the NTSB told TechCrunch. The agency expects to publish a preliminary report within 30 days, with a detailed final report coming in 12 to 24 months.
But here's the kicker - this is actually the second federal investigation Waymo's facing over the same problem. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation opened a similar probe back in October, after incidents first surfaced in Atlanta last September. That's when a Waymo vehicle pulled out of a driveway and drove perpendicularly across a stopped school bus from the right side, then turned left down the street while kids were getting off.
Waymo acknowledged at the time that its vehicle couldn't see the stop sign or flashing lights. The company pushed out a software update to fix what it called a specific scenario. Problem solved, right? Not even close.
