A US agency reported this Thursday that it asked Waymo to clarify more information after Texas officials reported that the Alphabet subsidiary’s autonomous vehicles had illegally passed school buses on 19 occasions since the start of the school year.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation in October following an incident in Georgia where a Waymo vehicle failed to stop when approaching a school bus with its red lights on and a stop sign displayed.
In a Nov. 20 letter published by NHTSA, the Austin Independent School District reported that five incidents occurred in November after Waymo claimed to have updated its software to correct the problem. The district asked the company to suspend operations near schools during pick-up and drop-off times until it was assured that the vehicles would stop violating the law.
Waymo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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“We cannot allow Waymo to continue putting our students at risk while attempting to implement a solution,” an attorney for the school district wrote, citing a case in which a Waymo car was caught passing a stopped school bus moments after a student crossed in front of the vehicle while it was still on the road.
A spokesperson for the school district did not immediately respond to whether Waymo had complied with the request.
The letter prompted NHTSA to ask Waymo on Nov. 24 whether it would comply with the request to suspend its autonomous operations during pick-up and drop-off times, adding: “Has an appropriate software fix been implemented or developed to mitigate this concern? And if so, does Waymo plan to file a recall for this fix?”
In another letter sent Wednesday, NHTSA required Waymo to respond by Jan. 20 to a series of questions about incidents involving school buses and details about software updates intended to address safety concerns.
With information from Reuters.
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