"Waymo's vehicles struggled for months to learn how to stop for school buses as drivers picked up and dropped off children. An official with the Austin Independent School District (AISD) alleged that the vehicles had, in at least 19 instances, 'illegally and dangerously' passed the district's school buses while their red lights were flashing and their stop arms were extended rather than coming to complete stops, as the law requires."
"In early December, Waymo even issued a federal recall related to the incidents, acknowledging at least 12 of them to federal regulators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which oversees road safety. According to federal filings, engineers with the self-driving vehicle company had 'developed software changes to address the behavior' weeks before."
"Email and text messages between school officials and Waymo representatives show the lengths that the Austin public school district and Waymo went to try to solve the problem. AISD even hosted a half-day 'data collection' event in a school parking lot in mid-December, with several employees pulling together school buses and stop-arm signals from across the fleet so the self-driving car company could collect information related to vehicles and their flashing lights."
Waymo's self-driving vehicles in Austin failed to stop for school buses, resulting in at least 19 dangerous incidents. The Austin Independent School District reported that the cars illegally passed buses with flashing lights. In December, Waymo issued a federal recall acknowledging 12 incidents and developed software changes to address the issue. Despite these efforts, incidents continued, prompting collaboration between the school district and Waymo to collect data on bus signals. However, the problem persisted into January, indicating ongoing challenges with the technology.
Read at WIRED
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