Waymo plans software recall to address bus incidents

Natalie Lung and Kara Carlson, Bloomberg News on Dec 5, 2025

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Waymo said it will file a voluntary software recall with U.S. federal authorities after its autonomously driven vehicles repeatedly failed to fully slow or stop for school buses.

The Alphabet Inc. self-driving unit expects to file the notice early next week, which will become public on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website in the days following, a spokesperson said in an emailed statement on Friday.

“While we are incredibly proud of our strong safety record showing Waymo experiences 12 times fewer injury crashes involving pedestrians than human drivers, holding the highest safety standards means recognizing when our behavior should be better,” Waymo’s Chief Safety Officer Mauricio Peña said of the decision.

“We will continue analyzing our vehicles’ performance and making necessary fixes as part of our commitment to continuous improvement,” he added.

Waymo’s decision comes after the Austin Independent School District found at least 19 different instances of the vehicles illegally passing school buses since the start of the school year. It had called on Waymo to halt operations during school bus route hours in a Nov. 20 letter, according to documents linked under a NHTSA probe that opened in October.

No injuries occurred related to the vehicle behavior addressed by the recall, Waymo said.

The company said it identified a software issue that caused its vehicle to initially slow or stop for a school bus but then continue driving. Waymo said it implemented software updates by Nov. 17 that have “meaningfully improved” its performance around buses.

On Thursday, the district said in response to a Bloomberg inquiry that the Nov. 17 software update didn’t adequately address the issue, stating it recorded the latest transgression on Dec. 1.

A Waymo spokesperson said in a follow-up response that the company is reviewing the Dec. 1 incident to “understand and improve.”