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The Alphabet-owned Waymo has rapidly expanded its operations over the past couple of years, putting driverless cars on the streets of multiple major cities across the United States. Outfitted with an array of sensors, the cars can be summoned by app. Waymo boasted 10 million trips in May 2025, with over 250,000 trips each week. But now, the company is being forced to pump its brakes as it faces increased government scrutiny after a number of vehicles were caught making illegal maneuvers on the road, many of which involved school buses. A federal investigation comes on the heels of suggestions that Waymo’s self-driving taxis are going off the rails.

To protect the safety of small children, it is illegal in all 50 U.S. states to pass a stopped school bus with its stop sign out. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what Waymo cabs have been spotted doing in dozens of instances. On December 5, the Austin Independent School District in Austin, Texas issued its 20th citation to Waymo for school bus-related traffic violations, requesting that the company cease operations in the morning and afternoon while school buses are on the road. Waymo refused to comply. On December 6, the company announced a planned software recall for vehicles in a stated effort to address the issue. According to reporting from CBS Austin, the recall came two weeks after Waymo claimed it had pushed a software update to remedy the illegal behavior.

The situation has drawn the scrutiny of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the nation’s top agency for enforcing vehicle safety standards. On December 3, federal regulators notified Waymo of an investigation into “the performance of the Waymo ADS [automated driving system] around stopped school buses.” Here’s what we know so far about the agency’s regulatory efforts and Waymo’s response.

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Federal regulators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have launched a probe into the Alphabet-owned Waymo company’s driverless vehicles. In both Austin, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia, the driverless robotaxis were spotted. Among other demands in its initial letter, the agency requested information regarding the company’s safety protocols around stopped school buses, an enumeration of vehicles currently on the road, and the degree to which Waymo is aware of consumer complaints and other claims against the behaviors of its vehicles.

The agency warned that penalties could be applied under federal statutes which govern navigation around school buses, as well as under the Vehicle Safety Act. The penalties could be as high as $139,356,994.00  — Waymo’s parent company, Alphabet, reported $102.35 billion in quarterly earnings for Q3 of 2025. Waymo claimed in a statement to CBS News that its top priority is safety and boasting “a fivefold reduction in injury-related crashes compared to human drivers, and twelve times fewer injury crashes involving pedestrians.”

On December 8, NHTSA regulators said they are ramping up their investigation into Waymo on the heels of the now 20 incidents of illegal navigation around school buses identified by the Austin Independent School District. The Atlanta Public School District in Georgia told the media it is aware of six such instances. The school bus scandal comes amid a number of Waymo-related incidents, ranging from the perplexing to the concerning. It has alarmed some corners of the public and given weight to critics of the driverless vehicle technology who say the technology is not yet safe enough to deploy at scale.

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Waymo has defended its safety practices in public statements, but was equally vocal about its planned software recall for next week. The government investigation arrives amid a rising tide of bad press and salty sentiments from concerned citizens. Decentralized activist groups in San Francisco, such as Safe Street Rebel and Network for Safety in Our Streets and for Working People, have deployed a range of tactics. The former group has deployed guerilla strategies to disable parked Waymo vehicles in an effort to draw attention to the perceived hazard, while the latter has advocated for a blanket ban on robotaxis. They are joined in their efforts by the local Teamsters union.

In addition to recordings of school bus lawbreaking, a number of viral videos have featured Waymo vehicles in concerning situations. One Waymo drove its passenger through the middle of a tense police standoff with a suspected felon in downtown Los Angeles. Another kept an L.A. tech worker locked inside as it circled the Harbor airport in Phoenix, Arizona. And video from the Mission district of San Francisco shows a Waymo running over and killing a beloved bodega cat named KitKat, who was known as the “mayor of 16th Street” to residents. Video shows the animal stood in the vehicle’s tire path for roughly 25 seconds prior.

Waymo has planned expansions to two dozen more cities across the U.S. and worldwide. Its vehicles are planned to arrive soon in Japan, the U.K., and more Texas locales, as well as in Denver, Detroit, Las Vegas, London, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, San Diego, and Washington, DC. They have already been tested on roads in Baltimore, Buffalo, Boston, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa, and Tokyo.