WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Waymo said Friday it would issue a recall for its self-driving vehicles after Texas officials said the Alphabet GOOGL.O unit's vehicles had illegally passed school buses at least 19 times in recorded incidents since the start of the school year.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which first opened a probe in October into Waymo vehicles near school buses, had asked the self-driving car company on Wednesday to answer a series of questions about the Texas incidents.

"Holding the highest safety standards means recognizing when our behavior should be better. As a result, we have made the decision to file a voluntary software recall with NHTSA related to appropriately slowing and stopping in these scenarios," Waymo said, adding it believes software updates implemented by November 17 have meaningfully improved performance.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Diane Craft)

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