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A federal safety investigation has been opened to look at how Waymo driverless vehicles perform around school buses.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration learned of a media report which shows a Waymo automated vehicle (AV) violate safety laws regarding a school bus in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Waymo involved in the September 22 incident was equipped with a 5th Generation automated driving system (ADS) which apparently ignored the stopped school bus and flashing red lights. The Waymo AV also drove past the school bus stop arm and the deployed crossing control arm.
The Waymo automated vehicle approached the right side of the stopped school bus from a side street and stopped, at first.
The Waymo accelerated and drove around the front of the bus by turning right to keep from hitting the front-end of the school bus. As seen in the video, it then turned left to pass in front of the bus and headed down the highway.
To do this, the driverless Waymo AV had to ignore and drive past the extended crossing control arm and stop sign of the bus.
NHTSA and Waymo discussed the incident and concluded, “the likelihood of other prior similar incidents is high,” just not caught on video.
According to federal safety regulators, Waymo’s automated driving systems have accumulated some serious miles, estimated to be about 2 million miles per week. As of July 2025, the automated driving systems were responsible for 100 million miles of driving.
CarComplaints.com will update our website with results of the Waymo AV / school bus investigation.
