Repeated incidents of Waymo automated vehicles failing to follow school bus traffic laws are becoming a cause for concern.
Video from September showed a Waymo vehicle illegally passing a school bus in Atlanta, while 19 incidents of Waymo vehicles violating school bus traffic laws have been documented by the Austin Independent School District in Texas.
According to Austin school district officials, Waymo vehicles are averaging one and a half violations per week.
The Austin school district added that Waymo made assurances in a Nov. 5 letter that software updates were being made to resolve the issue.
Since that correspondence, Austin school district officials said five of the 19 violations have occurred.
“Put simply, Waymo’s software updates are clearly not working as intended nor as quickly as required,” the district’s legal counsel wrote in a Nov. 20 email to Waymo. “We cannot allow Waymo to continue endangering our students while it attempts to implement a fix.”
Waymo Chief Safety Officer Mauricio Pena said the company will continue to analyze the performance of its vehicles and make necessary fixes, in a statement emailed to NPR.
Austin ISD concluded its Nov. 20 correspondence with Waymo by demanding the company cease operation of its automated vehicles from 5:20 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., “until more in-depth software updates are completed and Waymo can guarantee its vehicles will comply with the law.”
The school district is also evaluating potential legal remedies and said it intends to take whatever action is necessary to protect student safety.
Waymo issued a voluntary software recall in early December.
NHTSA investigation
On Oct. 17, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation after reports that a Waymo AV was driving around a stopped school bus.
During the incident that prompted the investigation, no safety operator was present in the Waymo vehicle.
“Based upon NHTSA’s engagement with Waymo on this incident and the accumulation of operation miles, the likelihood of other prior similar incidents is high,” NHTSA wrote.
The NHTSA investigation will focus on the performance of Waymo’s ADS around stopped school buses, how it’s designed to comply with school bus traffic safety laws, and the system’s ability to follow those laws.
NHTSA will seek to determine the scope of this incident and any similar incidents. LL
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