By David Shepardson and Akash Sriram
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Monday it has opened a preliminary investigation into about 2,000 Waymo self-driving vehicles after reports that the company's robotaxis may have failed to follow traffic safety laws around a stopped school bus.
The probe of the Alphabet unit is the latest scrutiny of self-driving systems by regulators reviewing how driverless technologies interact with pedestrians, cyclists and other road users.
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NHTSA opened the investigation after a recent media report aired video of an incident in Georgia in which a Waymo did not remain stationary when approaching a school bus with its red lights flashing and stop arm deployed.
The report said the Waymo vehicle initially stopped then maneuvered around the bus, passing the extended stop arm while students were disembarking.
Waymo's automated driving system surpassed 100 million miles of driving in July and is logging 2 million miles per week, the agency said. "Based on NHTSA’s engagement with Waymo on this incident and the accumulation of operational miles, the likelihood of other prior similar incidents is high," the agency said.
A Waymo spokesperson said the company has “already developed and implemented improvements related to stopping for school buses and will land additional software updates in our next software release.”
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