Morning drop-off at Cambridge Elementary in Alamo Heights turned chaotic on Wednesday when a driverless Waymo robotaxi rolled the wrong way through the school zone, threading itself into the car line and rattling parents, crossing guards and kids who watched it unfold.
A parent who filmed the encounter said the school’s crosswalk monitor stepped in and tried to wave the vehicle off as it squeezed between two rows of waiting cars. The clip shows the robotaxi heading down Townsend Avenue against the flow of traffic, and parents told reporters the whole thing felt “scary and dangerous.”
As reported by KSAT, viewer Pam Antal, who provided the video, said the incident happened while she was dropping her daughter off and that the crosswalk cop tried to stop the Waymo from entering a one-way street. KSAT's footage shows the vehicle traveling the wrong way between rows of cars, and the station said it reached out to Waymo and the Alamo Heights Independent School District for comment.
Waymo's recent San Antonio rollout
Waymo only launched limited public service in San Antonio in late February, operating a roughly 60-square-mile zone that includes downtown and the River Walk, the San Antonio Express-News reported. This week the company expanded airport access, with TechCrunch reporting that San Antonio International Airport went live with robotaxi service on March 31. The company has been inviting riders on a rolling basis as it scales operations across multiple U.S. cities.
A pattern of concern in Texas
The Alamo Heights clip lands in the middle of a run of high-profile Texas incidents that have raised fresh questions about how robotaxis behave once streets get complicated. The Texas Tribune documented a March incident in Austin where a Waymo vehicle briefly blocked an ambulance responding to a mass shooting, prompting local scrutiny. Federal records show the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a preliminary evaluation into whether Waymo vehicles properly stop for school buses, according to NHTSA.
KSAT reported it contacted Waymo and Alamo Heights ISD but had not received a public reply by the time of publication. The video includes Antal's comment that "This is a Waymo car not taking instruction from a cop who tried to redirect it and went backwards in a school zone," which KSAT ran alongside the footage.
What local leaders can do
Transportation planners say incidents like these are exactly the kind of stress tests cities need to be ready for, and they recommend clear lines of communication with robotaxi operators instead of playing catch-up one viral clip at a time. The National Association of City Transportation Officials recommends that cities name a single point of contact for robotaxi companies and negotiate data-sharing agreements so officials can quickly investigate trouble spots, according to NACTO. Austin school officials have urged stricter controls after their district recorded multiple stop-arm violations by Waymo vehicles, Community Impact reported.
Regulatory watch
NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation opened its preliminary evaluation on Oct. 17, 2025 and has asked Waymo for detailed records about the behavior, according to NHTSA. Reporting from Axios notes Waymo later filed a voluntary software recall in December to address instances where vehicles initially slow for a bus but then continue past it.
For now, the Alamo Heights episode has parents looking for answers as robotaxis weave into everyday routines. School and city officials will likely weigh whether to tighten drop-off controls or open formal talks with Waymo as the company expands around the Alamo City.
