What happened?
US federal officials said that after a software update to Waymo's self-driving system, the company's robotaxis continued to illegally pass school buses. According to TechCrunch, the update had been rolled out nearly a year earlier.
Why it matters
Rules on stopping for and passing school buses are a critical threshold for assessing the safety of autonomous vehicles. The fact that a software fix did not fully resolve the issue shows that self-driving systems still struggle with rare but high-risk real-world scenarios.
The safety debate in autonomous driving
Waymo is one of the most widespread companies operating commercial robotaxi services in the US. Findings like this from federal agencies signal that oversight and regulatory pressure could grow as autonomous vehicles become more common.
