Incident·WS-0066·Dec 8, 2025·in the wild·Robotaxis & physical AI

Waymo robotaxis illegally pass stopped school buses

Waymo

34/100
WS-2 Moderate
Harm score 25, signal score 46. Autonomy: acted (the AI took a bounded action). How the scores work.
Harm 1/5
damage actually done
Reach 2/5
who was affected
Autonomy 2/4
how much the AI did on its own
Novelty 2/5
how new the behavior was
Permanence 1/5
how hard it is to undo

Austin ISD documented Waymo vehicles illegally passing stopped school buses, at least 20 times by early December. Waymo filed a software recall on 8 Dec 2025, but more violations followed. NHTSA widened its investigation and the NTSB opened its own on 23 Jan 2026. NTSB's preliminary findings point to a remote-assistance operator wrongly telling a vehicle the bus's lights were off.

Damage

two dozen+ violations near children; no injuries reported

The capability behind it

Sources

CBS News, second source. Evidence confidence: medium. The recall date and NTSB preliminary details come from Wikipedia; NHTSA PE25013 was not fetched. Waymo declined Austin ISD's request to pause during bus hours.

Factor ratings and the score are this index’s judgments by a published formula; facts, dates and figures come from the linked sources. Where a lawsuit is pending, the summary reports allegations, not findings.