This is a real problem.
In November, on Austin’s South First Street, cameras caught a Waymo automated vehicle drive past an Austin Independent School District school bus’ flashing stop signs. At first, the driverless car stopped while a student crossed in front of it – but video shows the car accelerating forward before the student could cross the other lane of traffic or get out of the road.
Just two days before, in north Austin, bus surveillance cameras also recorded a different Waymo illegally passing an AISD bus as students crossed the street.
The traffic violation was one of many times the stop-arm cameras AISD installed on all its buses in 2016 had been recording (and sending tickets to Waymo) over similar violations this school year. District records show since the first week of school, AISD’s system caught Waymo illegally passing its school buses 19 times.
Texas law requires motorists to come to a complete stop when a school bus is stopped with its stop-arm extended and its lights flashing. Drivers are not allowed to proceed until the school bus resumes motion. According to the Austin ISD Police Department, since August 2025, the district has mailed more than 6,700 school bus citations.
Videos KXAN obtained show some Waymos not stopping for the district’s school buses. In some cases, the automated vehicle would drive past the first stop-arm on the bus and abruptly stop alongside the bus before passing the second stop-arm. In others, the Waymo would stop briefly and then seconds later maneuver around the bus while the stop-arm was still deployed.
In six of the videos KXAN reviewed, children could be seen in a video frame.
Because of the safety concerns – which Waymo officials said they’ve already addressed with software changes – AISD leaders are asking Waymo to stop operating during hours when students are getting on and off buses throughout the city until the company can guarantee the vehicles will comply with Texas law.
“My belief is that if we are truly concerned about student safety that we stop doing things that we knowingly have documentation is creating safety issues for kids,” Austin ISD Police Chief Wayne Sneed said.
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On Nov. 5, email records show Waymo sent Austin ISD’s legal team a letter indicating it had made “certain software updates” to improve performance around school buses.
On Nov. 20, district leaders said its system had recorded seven more violations, with the most recent incident on South First Street on Nov. 14.
“The situation has escalated. There have been several additional violations, including camera footage showing Waymo vehicles in motion while our students are present,” Senior Counsel Jennifer Oliaro wrote in a Nov. 20 email to Waymo.
The district, according to its Nov. 20 letter, wanted Waymo to immediately cease operating its fleet of automated vehicles from 5:20 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and again from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. “until more in-depth software updates” were completed and the company could guarantee the vehicles could comply with the law.
“This is a serious, dangerous situation for Austin ISD. Austin ISD is reviewing all potential legal remedies at its disposal and intends to take whatever action is necessary to protect its students,” Oliaro told KXAN.
Waymo told KXAN it had identified issues where its vehicles may initially slow down or stop for a school bus, but then ended up proceeding while the bus stop sign was extended or flashing lights were active. The company said during the incidents identified by the district, its automated vehicles proceeded cautiously when no individuals were in the path of the vehicle.
“Safety is our top priority at Waymo, including how we interact with school buses. We have already implemented software updates to address this situation and are committed to improving road safety through our ongoing learnings and experience,” Waymo officials told KXAN.
The company said the software updates meant to address its vehicles’ issues with school buses were implemented over a period of days and were completely incorporated into Waymo’s fleet by Nov. 17.
When asked whether the company would agree to AISD’s request for Waymos not to operate while buses were loading and unloading students, Waymo officials said they believed the software updates meaningfully improved performance.
This story is from last week, and yesterday Waymo said it would issue a recall for its software to fix the issue. That’s good and I expect they will get it fixed. I will also stipulate again that Waymo’s safety record is quite a bit better than human drivers, and that in the medium to long term autonomous vehicles will almost certainly have a significant effect on road safety. That is also good.
In the meantime, though, this is a reminder that there’s nothing the city of Austin could have done to affect what was happening. Cities have no regulatory authority over driverless vehicles in Texas thanks to the wisdom of the Legislature. The state has some form of oversight, and offhand I have no idea what it might be. The safety record of Waymos aside, I will note that a couple of well-placed traffic cops and a few tickets that carry hefty fines for passing school buses do a lot to deter human drivers from this behavior. Assuming it’s even possible to send a ticket to Waymo’s corporate office, I doubt they’d worry about a few thousand bucks here and there, assuming they ever bothered to pay them. Maybe this is a loophole that the Lege ought to address at its next opportunity. Just a thought.