The NHTSA’s Closure of the Waymo Investigation: A Debugging Exercise in Autonomous Driving

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) decision to close its 14-month investigation into Waymo’s self-driving vehicles is a moment that feels like a system reboot in the world of autonomous driving. The probe, triggered by 22 reports of collisions and erratic behavior, was essentially a stress test for Waymo’s technology—and by extension, the entire autonomous vehicle industry. The fact that NHTSA didn’t pull the plug on the investigation suggests that Waymo’s software patches (read: recalls) were sufficient to stabilize the system. But like any good coder knows, closing a bug report doesn’t mean the code is perfect—it just means the immediate crashes have been fixed.

The Bug Report: What Went Wrong?

The investigation was kicked off by a series of incidents that read like a list of runtime errors in an autonomous driving system. Seventeen collisions, including impacts with parked cars and utility poles, were just the tip of the iceberg. The real red flags were the reports of “unexpected behavior”—vehicles drifting into traffic, entering construction zones, and generally acting like a script with a logic error. NHTSA’s concern wasn’t just about property damage; it was about whether these glitches could escalate into something more dangerous, like a full-blown system crash (pun intended).

The agency’s investigation was essentially a deep dive into Waymo’s codebase. They reviewed data logs, analyzed incident reports, and grilled Waymo’s engineers to understand whether these were isolated bugs or systemic flaws. The real-world environment—where variables like pedestrian behavior and road conditions are unpredictable—made this debugging process even more complex. If Waymo’s autonomous system was a piece of software, NHTSA was running a full regression test to see if it could handle edge cases.

The Patch Notes: Waymo’s Response

Waymo’s response to the investigation was akin to rolling out a software update. The company issued two recalls—one in 2024 to fix a collision issue with stationary objects like utility poles, and another in May 2024 to improve object detection, particularly with obstacles like chains and gates. These recalls were essentially hotfixes, addressing the most critical vulnerabilities in the system.

NHTSA’s decision to close the investigation suggests that these patches were sufficient to mitigate the immediate risks. But here’s the thing about software: you can’t just patch your way to perfection. The agency’s closure of the probe doesn’t mean Waymo’s system is flawless—it just means the known issues have been addressed. And like any good developer knows, there’s always another bug waiting to be found.

The Road Ahead: A Work in Progress

The closure of this investigation is a milestone, but it’s not the finish line. NHTSA’s decision signals that Waymo’s technology is moving in the right direction, but the agency hasn’t given the system a clean bill of health. The investigation could be reopened if new evidence emerges, and the fact that a parallel probe into Zoox’s vehicles is still ongoing shows that NHTSA is keeping a close eye on the entire industry.

For Waymo—and the rest of the autonomous vehicle sector—the challenge now is to maintain this momentum. The public’s trust in self-driving technology is fragile, and any major incident could set the industry back years. The regulatory landscape is still evolving, and NHTSA’s data-driven approach is likely to become the standard for oversight in this field.

The road to fully autonomous driving is long, and there will be more bugs to fix along the way. But the closure of this investigation is a sign that progress is being made. The future of self-driving vehicles is still uncertain, but with each patch, each recall, and each regulatory review, we’re getting closer to a system that’s not just functional, but safe. And in the world of autonomous driving, that’s the ultimate goal.