Austin Automated Vehicles and School Bus Safety Investigations
Published
Federal investigations open; findings preliminary. Law checked through October 18, 2026.
Every farm child learns that some rules are not negotiable. The gate is shut behind you; the bull is never trusted. On a Texas road, the stopped school bus with red lights flashing and its arm extended is that kind of rule. Machines that drive must learn it as surely as people do, and the federal government is now asking how one of them failed to.
On January 12, 2026, at about 7:55 a.m., an unoccupied 2024 Jaguar I-Pace operated by Waymo's fifth-generation automated driving system approached an Austin ISD bus stopped to load students on the 1700 block of East Oltorf Street. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the vehicle stopped first, then asked its remote assistance center whether this was a school bus with active signals. A remote agent in Michigan answered no, and the vehicle passed the bus with its stop arm still extended. Five other vehicles also passed. No one was struck. The NTSB opened investigation HWY26FH007, says its information is preliminary, and is examining other Austin ISD bus incidents as well.
The federal regulator moved first. NHTSA opened a preliminary evaluation, PE25013, on October 17, 2025, after reports of Waymo vehicles passing stopped school buses, and Waymo filed a software recall, 25E-084, covering 3,067 vehicles on December 10, 2025. The Austin passing on January 12 came after that recall.
Texas law forbids passing a stopped school bus displaying its signals (Transportation Code § 545.066), and the state's automated-vehicle subchapter treats the engaged automated driving system as the operator for traffic-law purposes (§ 545.454), with citations issued to the owner or, for an authorized vehicle, the authorization holder. Under the 2025 amendments, TxDMV may also act against a commercial driverless authorization when operation has caused or is likely to cause serious bodily injury, after notice and an opportunity to cure. The incident also shows something the statutes do not yet name: the remote human who answers a vehicle's question may be the last decision-maker before the act.
Limits
NTSB investigations determine probable cause and issue recommendations; they do not assign legal liability, and NTSB reports are generally not admissible as evidence in damages suits. No probable cause has been determined.
Sources
- NTSB HWY26FH007
- NHTSA PE25013
- Recall 25E-084
- Tex. Transp. Code §§ 545.066, 545.454
- 49 U.S.C. § 1154(b)