Waymo's School Bus Fix Under Federal Review: The Recall Timeline and Query RQ26006

Waymo's December 2025 recall notice said its vehicles "may not stop for a school bus," KSAT reported. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has now opened recall query RQ26006 to determine "whether the original remedy adequately addresses the safety issue," Drive Tesla Canada reports. The same report says the majority of identified school bus passing incidents occurred after November 17, 2025, when the remedy had been completed. So the short answer is that the regulator doubts the recall worked and has opened a formal review to find out.

Drive Tesla Canada and GV Wire, whose Reuters-based report is dated November 9, 2026, both put the query at 2,895 vehicles, and Drive Tesla Canada says it was opened on a Friday. The NHTSA query document and Wired's report on the query were not available at the time of writing.

How the recall arrived after its own fix

The first counts came from school districts. KSAT reported that an Austin ISD letter cited 19 instances of Waymo automated vehicles not stopping for its buses. The Austin school district documented 19 violations and Atlanta public schools recorded six more, GV Wire reports.

The software update went out between November 5 and November 17, 2025, according to Drive Tesla Canada. Waymo's account, as quoted by GV Wire, is that it was "fully deployed by mid-November." The recall filing came in December. KSAT quoted Waymo's chief safety officer: "we have made the decision to file a voluntary software recall with NHTSA." In the same statement Waymo said "the software updates implemented by Nov. 17 have meaningfully improved performance."

On paper, then, the update was deployed first and the recall was filed afterwards, and the two actions carry different vehicle counts. GV Wire puts the December recall at over 3,000 vehicles. RQ26006 covers 2,895, which Drive Tesla Canada says are fitted with Waymo's fifth-generation automated driving system.

None of the reports give the date of each incident, the total number NHTSA identified, how many came before and after the update, or why the two vehicle counts differ.

The dates and counts, in order

What the new query is asking

The query follows an earlier NHTSA review. Drive Tesla Canada reports that NHTSA's closing summary of an earlier probe "called into question the effectiveness of Waymo's software fix." That earlier probe is not identified by name or date. RQ26006 puts the same question formally, against a remedy that Waymo says was fully deployed by mid-November and that Drive Tesla Canada says was completed by November 17.

The Santa Monica case is a different matter. GV Wire reports that NHTSA opened a separate probe in January, year not stated, after a Waymo vehicle struck a child near an elementary school there. It involves a school setting, but none of the reports link it to the school bus recall or to RQ26006.

What NHTSA can do from here

A recall query is a review, not a ruling. Opening one does not mean NHTSA has found the remedy inadequate, and it carries no penalty in itself. Under the general federal recall process, a query can be closed, or the manufacturer can file a further recall, and NHTSA has enforcement powers beyond that, including civil penalties. No source describes the outcome of this query, and none of the reports on RQ26006 say any of those steps are under consideration.

None of the reports describe a change to Waymo's service in Austin, Atlanta or anywhere else.

The record so far does not support calling the problem fixed, and Waymo's own claim, that performance "meaningfully improved," is a smaller one. Until NHTSA publishes figures from before and after the update, the public data is too thin to judge how often it still happens.

If you ride or live near Waymo

• Note the query number, RQ26006, and the two vehicle counts, 2,895 in the query and over 3,000 in the December recall, so any later NHTSA notice can be matched to the right action.
• If you see any vehicle, automated or not, pass a stopped school bus, write down the date, time and location and report it to the school district's transportation office.
• NHTSA takes vehicle safety complaints from the public through nhtsa.gov. A report with the date, time, location and vehicle description is the useful one.
• If your children ride school buses in Austin or Atlanta, ask the district whether it is still logging incidents involving automated vehicles.