About 2,000 Waymo vehicles are under investigation after reports of one driverless taxis move around the school bus while children get off it.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday launched a preliminary investigation to examine the effectiveness of Waymo's autonomous technology on stopped school buses and how the system is designed to comply with school bus safety laws, according to a release from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. investigation.
The incident occurred Sept. 22 in Atlanta when Waymo, using the Mountain View, Calif., company's fifth-generation automated driving system, pulled up to the right side of a stopped school bus. The vehicle initially stopped but then went around the front of the bus and onto the left side, the report said.
The vehicle ignored the bus's extended stop lever on the left side and the crossing control lever on the right side, near where the students were getting off. The bus also flashed red lights. Similar incidents have likely happened before, according to the NHTSA.
“Safety is our top priority as we deliver hundreds of thousands of fully autonomous paid rides every week in the most challenging driving conditions,” a Waymo spokesperson said. “NHTSA plays a vital role in ensuring highway safety, and we will continue to partner with the agency as part of our mission to become the world's most trusted driver.”
Waymo has already released software updates to improve self-driving performance and plans to release additional updates, the spokesperson said. The school bus was partially blocking the driveway Waymo was exiting from during the incident, and the vehicle was kept a safe distance from children, the company said.
According to Waymo, self-driving taxis improve road safety conditions in the communities in which they operate, achieving a fivefold reduction in injury-related crashes compared to human drivers. The company's activities saw glitches and reviewshowever.
Last month, police in San Bruno, California, watched a self-driving Waymo crash. illegal U-turn at a traffic light. Officers were unable to issue a ticket because there was no human driver on scene, the San Bruno Police Department said. Instead, the department contacted the company to report the violation.
When self-driving cars break traffic laws, law enforcement cannot punish them in the same way as humans. As interpreted by state law, traffic tickets can only be issued to the actual driver.
California lawmakers have tried to close the enforcement loophole with a law that takes effect in July, but critics say the law is not strong enough.
Waymo spokeswoman Yulia Ilyina said the company's vehicles are already subject to close, ongoing oversight by California regulators and that the company's self-driving system is “designed to comply with traffic laws.”
Waymo, which has been offering rides in Los Angeles since November, expanded service area in the city and in San Francisco in the summer.
