WAYMO'S SCHOOL BUS FIX WORKED SO WELL THAT MOST OF THE VIOLATIONS CAME AFTER IT

NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation opened recall query RQ26006 on November 6, covering 2,895 Waymo vehicles running the fifth-generation driving software. The question it is asking out loud, in a federal document, is whether last year's fix fixed anything. Waymo says the update was complete across the fleet on November 17, 2025, which was three weeks before it even filed the recall paperwork on December 10. NHTSA says a majority of the school bus passing incidents it identified happened after that November 17 date. Austin is where the receipts are. Austin Independent School District documented 19 separate violations, including one where the car stopped, reconsidered, and proceeded while a student was still crossing the street. Reuters reported $300 fines. Atlanta Public Schools has logged six of its own. Every Austin ISD bus carries a stop-arm camera, so there is footage of a $100 billion company failing the easiest rule on the road test. Waymo's response is that it has made significant improvements and has received no citations since March 2026. A citation requires a cop or a camera to catch you, which is a distinction the lawyers understand perfectly. It also wants to keep talking to regulators about how recalls should work for software that keeps learning. The learning is the part under investigation.

Why you should give a shit: A recall query can end with NHTSA forcing a second recall on all 2,895 cars. The fix now depends on the same process that took a full year to ask whether the first one did anything.