As I write this column, it is School Bus Safety Week, and our November magazine is dedicated to game-changers. Which made me think about technologies that many other industries view as game-changing, but in our industry, carry much more concern. 

One-quarter of school transportation officials say that other motorists’ behavior is their top safety concern. (Find this and many more trends in our district deep-dive report.)

School bus drivers have the heavy burden of delivering our nation’s children to school every day. Parents everywhere put their trust in the driver's skills to get them there and back safely. But what this doesn’t account for is the behavior of others they share the road with. 

Autonomous Passenger Vehicles

A few months ago, I heard a report of Tesla’s self-driving cars colliding with test dummies. Advocacy group The Dawn Project has been tracking and testing this, revealing that in full self-driving mode, the vehicles will illegally pass school buses and run into children crossing in front.

The group has been vocal on the issue since at least 2022, when it ran an ad in the New York Times and a Super Bowl commercial in 2023 calling attention to the danger. The Dawn Project claims that Tesla is aware but has taken no action, stating that the issue persists even after Tesla’s version 13 update.

Forbes also journaled a Tesla ride-along in fully autonomous mode in September that reported that the vehicle ignored certain traffic signs and speed limits and failed to slow down at pedestrian crossings with people present.

A kid almost died, and Tesla did nothing to fix this critical safety defect.

In June 2025 we conducted a live demonstration of this test in Austin, Tesla's back yard. 27 million people viewed the test on Twitter alone.

Still, Tesla didn't fix the bug. pic.twitter.com/hyCUOUqgLR

— Dan O'Dowd (@RealDanODowd) October 15, 2025

The Dawn Project has called for NHTSA to ban self-driving cars from public roads until the issue is resolved.

Similar reports come from Waymo’s autonomous taxis. In September, one of the company’s driverless vehicles was recorded illegally passing a stopped school bus in Atlanta. State Rep. Clint Crowe called it out, posing the question of who is at fault and who pays fines or faces suspensions when there is no driver. 

For SBF’s September issue, I chatted with Meg Sweeney from the NTSB and asked what safety issues she is monitoring. The rise of autonomous vehicles was the first thing she cited due to their potential to interact with school buses.

The issue is now gaining increased attentiony. On Oct. 21, a law firm said that recent DOT rule relaxation eliminated crash reporting for incidents with no injuries for vehicles on autopilot, even though Tesla has 800 of the 1,040 crash reports last year. The firm also alleges that Waymo is now under NHTSA investigation

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) may be a marvel to some, but for those responsible for student safety, it’s a nightmare in the making. These reports show that current self-driving systems still fail in school bus scenarios — the one place society can least afford a mistake.

School buses will likely never see a driverless bus in any near future — or so it seems since NHTSA shut down Transdev’s autonomous school bus pilot in 2018. While I’ve heard very little chatter about its use lately, BusPlanner wrote about the topic in a January 2025 blog, predicting that, “It will not be until the 2040s that autonomous school buses become the norm, where the technology will almost completely replace human drivers.”

GreenPower also addressed the topic within public transit in its 2025 fiscal-year earnings call. The company’s leadership discussed its work with Perrone Robots for its EV Star line, calling it “very much a science project still,” and noting their caution around autonomous involvement due to its resource-intensive nature and desire to see how Tesla and Waymo’s scrutiny plays out.

As exciting as it is to watch technology advance, we must be cautious in how quickly it is adopted. We are already facing a crisis of human drivers illegally passing school buses and putting kids’ lives in harm’s way. Before we continue to deploy AVs in cities around the U.S., we need to ensure we’re on the right path with regulations and repercussions in place, plus more testing, transparency, and proof that these vehicles do not pose a danger. 

Everyday Dangers: The Human Factor

What else makes roadways scary around school buses? No doubt distracted drivers top that list. We know that distracted drivers have already claimed the lives of children around the bus and caused countless near-misses, and until there’s a larger culture shift, it will likely continue. 

Road rage is real, with statistics showing that fatalities from road rage-related incidents rose 6% from 2023 to 2024, and there’s been a 500% increase in reported cases of it over the last 10 years. When I recently chatted with the founder of S.T.A.R.T., he acknowledged that no one wants to be behind slow-moving vehicles, especially those making frequent stops. And in a culture where people are divided and in a hurry, accidents are waiting to happen.

Add to that the high emotions parents feel regarding their child’s busing: Just this past May, a South Carolina father ran a school bus off the road before trying to force his way in.

Let’s not forget about impaired driving. NHTSA reports that 34 people die every day from drunk driving crashes, and a North Carolina task force rep noted an increase in drivers under the influence over the past few years, even at times when school buses are running. 

What to Do About It

I don’t mean to be an alarmist. There is hope! 

A large and vocal group of advocates continues to press for illegal passing and distracted driving crackdowns and solutions. A Minnesota conference I recently attended focused on reducing traffic fatalities, featuring sessions on school bus safety and a program promoting ways to encourage teens to practice safe driving.

Tech continues to assist, too, with solutions like ADAS, AI dashcams, and more aiding good behind-the-wheel behavior and making the areas around buses safer and more visible.

We must continue to advocate and raise awareness about these issues and their solutions. The more people, both inside and outside the school transportation industry, realize the real dangers of what happens on our roadways and the perilous consequences, the brighter our future will be for students everywhere. 

True game-changers won’t come from automation or algorithms; they’ll come from awareness, accountability, and human action. And hopefully, no more preventable deaths and many more smiling faces.

What are you doing to make roadways safer? What concerns did I miss? Share your feedback with me anytime at amanda.huggett@bobit.com.