Waymo Faces Mounting Scrutiny as NTSB Examines School Bus Incident
Waymo, the self-driving ridesharing company, is mired in a growing number of safety incidents. While the company lately has been focused on launching in four new cities and transitioning to a new next-gen driving system, it faces a National Transportation Safety Board investigation over incidents in which vehicles illegally passed stopped school buses.
Waymo is also contending with high-profile criticism after a viral video showed one of its robotaxis blocking an ambulance headed to the scene of a mass shooting in Austin, Texas. And the company is answering to city leaders in San Francisco about an incident last year in which Waymo vehicles became unresponsive and stalled during a power outage in December. Waymo said in a blog post that it’s updating the robotaxi software to better handle power outages and make more decisive driving decisions during such incidents.
A representative for Waymo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The NTSB investigation is focused on incidents in Austin where the self-driving taxis are illegally passing stopped school buses. The NTSB cites in a report a Jan. 12 event caught on video that apparently occurred with approval from a human agent.
While there was no accident, “Austin ISD has reported multiple incidents of Waymo ADS-equipped vehicles passing school buses that are stopped to load or unload student passengers,” the report says. ADS stands for automated driving system.
According to reports, these types of incidents have happened more than 24 times in Austin. The city’s largest school district, Austin ISD, requested that Waymo stop operations near school areas when buses are active, Spectrum News reported.
The viral traffic video
After a mass shooting March 1 at an Austin club that left four people dead and at least others 13 injured, a Waymo vehicle got stuck trying to make a U-turn, blocking the way for an ambulance that was en route to the scene.
A video of the incident was captured by Austin realtor Matthew Turnage, and the TikTok post drew attention to the limitations of the self-driving technology. The company has yet to address the incident.
