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Reported The Forgotten Constraint Costly
Waymo files Part 573 recall after ADS software proceeded past stopped school buses
Waymo's 10 December 2025 Part 573 report to NHTSA (recall 25E084) covers 3,067 fifth-generation ADS software units that could, in certain cases, proceed again before a school bus finished its stop signals; a software remedy was already on all affected vehicles by 17 November 2025.
When an ADS is tuned to stop impeding priority vehicles, check whether that rule can override remaining stopped for a school bus with lights and stop arm active.
On 10 December 2025 Waymo LLC filed a Part 573 Safety Recall Report with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration under NHTSA Recall No. 25E084. The filing covers the company's 5th Generation Automated Driving System software, beginning with the 20 August 2025 driverless software release and prior to the 5 November 2025 driverless software release. Waymo reported 3,067 potentially involved units and estimated that 100% of that population had the defect. Production dates for the recalled equipment were listed as 20 August 2025 to 5 November 2025. The Part 573 report is the primary record for the figures and dates in this account.
According to that report, before the remedy software, Waymo vehicles that were stopped or stopping for a school bus with its red lights flashing and/or the stop arm extended would, in certain circumstances, proceed again before the bus had deactivated its flashing lights and/or retracted its stop arm. Waymo had designed the ADS to avoid impeding priority vehicles such as public buses and school buses. The report states the unwanted proceed behaviour could occur if, while yielding, the ADS decided it might be impeding the school bus or another priority vehicle and then reasoned that it should move on in order to stop impeding that vehicle.
The same Part 573 chronology says the behaviour only appeared with the 20 August 2025 driverless software release, which was broadly deployed in mid-September 2025 and which changed how the system predicted other road users' intended behaviour. On 22 September 2025 a Waymo AV slowed to 5 mph for a school bus and then proceeded before the stop arm retracted. Waymo identified that event through field monitoring; it did not result in a citation, and the company later treated it as the first known event of this defect. In October 2025, while analysing a rise in events in which a Waymo AV passed a school bus with the stop arm still extended, engineers identified the behaviour and built a software change.
On 30 October 2025 Waymo's Field Safety Committee decided to deploy that change as a software hotfix outside the normal release cadence. After validation, the hotfix rolled out to all affected vehicles between 5 November 2025 and 17 November 2025, with other school-bus behaviour enhancements in the same release. On 2 December 2025 Waymo's Safety Board reviewed the issue, including comparative rates of human drivers improperly passing school buses, and decided to conduct a recall. The Part 573 report states that no collisions occurred related to this behaviour, and that Waymo was aware of 12 citations identified as related, all between 25 September 2025 and 14 November 2025.
The remedy type is software. Between 5 November 2025 and 17 November 2025 Waymo updated the ADS software in all affected vehicles, which Waymo owns. The remedy software, the report says, stops the ADS from prioritising movement to avoid impeding vehicles over remaining stationary for a school bus with red lights flashing and/or the stop arm extended. Because the remedy was already on every affected vehicle, Waymo reported no need for Part 577 owner, dealer or distributor notifications or a further recall schedule.
This is a manufacturer Part 573 equipment recall of ADS software, not a finding that every reported school-bus encounter nationwide shares the same software cause. Figures for population, percentages, software windows, chronology dates, collision count and citation count above are taken from the 25E084 Part 573 PDF; coverage is cited only as secondary reporting of the filing.