A U.S. congressperson is stepping in to regulate robotaxis after a string of San Francisco traffic fiascos in which Waymos have stalled, lost battery and required physical tows, most infamously during the widely-documented Fourth of July car-pocalypse.
Mayor Daniel Lurie joined Rep. Kevin Mullin on the steps of Fire Station 4 in Mission Bay on Tuesday as Mullin proposed new federal standards that would, on paper, keep robotaxis like Waymo from blocking emergency first responders, driving through active crime scenes, or backing up intersections.
Lurie welcomed Waymo onto car-free Market Street in 2025, and San Francisco International Airport gave approval for the company to take passengers to and from the airport.
Despite his high profile, and his previous support for what he called “safe, reliable, and modern transportation options,” the mayor has little authority to regulate the standards for autonomous vehicles operating statewide.
That power rests with the California Public Utilities Commission and Department of Motor Vehicles, who have not publicly responded to Lurie’s calls for tighter regulation nor Mullin’s legislation after being contacted by Mission Local.
But with today’s announcement, it’s clear that federal lawmakers aren’t waiting for those agencies to act.
If approved, Mullin’s “AV Emergency Response Coordination Act” would establish “uniform safety standards” nationally, requiring robotaxis to share the road with police officers, firefighters and paramedics.
Mullin and other officials cited a list of traffic incidents in cities such as Austin, where a Waymo vehicle blocked authorities trying to respond to a mass shooting.
The bill, according to Mullin, would establish a 24/7 hotline for public officials to communicate directly with autonomous vehicle companies. It would also, he said, create a process for local public officials to issue requests for robotaxis to avoid certain areas during emergencies using geofencing.
The bill would apply to all autonomous vehicle companies.
“Waymo wants to fix these problems, and I would welcome their support of this bill,” said Mullin at the news conference. “They don’t want the negative headlines. They don’t want the reality of the incidents we’re seeing in the city.”
Tiffany Moore, head of federal policy and government affairs at Waymo, said the company generally supports efforts to standardize how autonomous vehicles adapt to first responders. In a statement provided to Mission Local, she did not say whether the company specifically supports Mullin’s bill.
“Establishing minimum guidelines would provide the entire industry and public safety community with a consistent framework, ensuring emergency responders have the resources and certainty they need whenever they encounter an autonomous vehicle on the road,” Moore said.
For better or worse, San Francisco has been a testing lab for the robotaxi revolution, for longer than any other city.
“We have learned more than any other city about how they operate in a dense, complex, urban environment,” said Lurie. “We have seen their enormous potential. We have also learned where stronger coordination and clearer standards are needed.”
Waymo notably soured the fanfare of San Francisco’s semiquincentennial July 4 celebration at the Golden Gate Bridge, which city officials had banked on as symbolizing a comeback from the “doom loop” narratives dogging the city’s image.
Instead there was gridlock. Waymos contributed to the fiasco by running out of battery and requiring tow trucks that were, in turn, blocked by stalled robotaxis.
After the fiasco, Lurie sent a frustrated letter to state regulators demanding tougher standards for autonomous vehicles.
“California’s challenge now is not just whether autonomous vehicles can operate safely under normal conditions, but also whether they can perform reliably during extraordinary ones,” Lurie wrote in the July 16 letter.
He also cited problems last December, when Waymo was forced to halt service after a near-citywide power outage created a PR nightmare for the company. Traffic lights across the city were down, confusing the driverless cars and trapping long lines of drivers behind them.
Earlier this month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also put Waymo and other companies on formal notice, calling nationwide incidents “unacceptable.”
“And that’s an administration that’s taken a pretty hands off approach to regulation. They even are acknowledging that this is a real problem,” Mullin said. “All of these crises are calling for federal action.”
I wish our mayor would promote Muni more so we don’t need so many rideshare vehicles on the roads.
Promoting MUNI doesn’t improve MUNI really. Nobody is fooled.
Oh, so the poor robot cars get confused when traffic lights aren’t working, like during the increasing power outages we will be facing due to global warming, AI data centers, and our failed imperialist wars?
This era will go down as the greatest waste of human, natural, and financial resources in history.
I would like to see legislation that limits the number of Waymo taxis operating on the streets at any given time relative to the proportion of miles driven empty. Currently about 44% of the total miles driven are with empty cars. Obviously, like regular taxis, some miles will be driven empty to pick up passengers, but when they don’t have anyone to pick up, they often just continue driving around aimlessly, contributing to traffic and to wear and tear on the streets. Waymo should have to pull cars from circulation if the percentage of miles driven empty reaches a certain threshold (that is a lot less than 44%). They have their own hubs in different parts of the city where cars go to charge or get cleaned, but maybe they need more and or larger hubs so they’re not driving around empty so often.
Consider for what possible reason do herds of waymos drive neighborhood streets at 4 in the morning, and the likely answer is obivous: they’re racking up “incident free” miles so that the Goog’s PR dept can yak, “see! safer than hyoomans!”
Most serious accidents in the real world happen on high-speed, high vehicle density corridors, like highways, the Bay Bridge, 19th Ave, etc. Not a whole lot of vehicle casualties at 18th and Treat, but racking up miles on sleepy nieghborhood streets enables Goog to tout the robot car’s safety.
Like nearly everything else wrt big tech, it’s a scam.
Lurie asking the Feds to help control Waymo after he leashed them onto Market Street smacks of the buyer’s remorse DOGE inspired after they canned essential staff and, whoops!, had to rehire them. More hypocrisy from a mayor who never had to take a bus in his life.
“unleashed” Oops.
Geofencing, emergency avoidance and a dedicated hotline are all restrictions that went into effect in CA on July 1 under AB 1777. Not a national law, but why is Lurie asking for something he already has? Enforce the laws that are on the books if he’s serious.
“Restrictions that went into effect in CA on July 1 under AB 1777.”
The fitting quote: “Paper everywhere, and not a drop of water to be seen” (MES)
Lurie and the rest of us have nothing, AB 1777 is worthless when oversight isn’t funded or in the pockets of industry, see CPUC.
How is it that SF taxicabs fall under the purview of City Hall but not robotaxis?
Can’t we start with limiting the number of robotaxis on city streets? Why is their number a secret? There are more and more new companies filling up our already Waymo-clogged streets.
@Chaz – Robotaxis followed the “deregulation” model of gig-economy scab cabs. Uber and Lyft lobbied at the state level, using Cato Institute talking points, and the corrupt CPUC mandates that cities cannot regulate them as they do taxis.
This is all conservative dogma in action, with no acknowledgement that the entire business model is externalizing costs to the public and socializing risk, while privatizing profit.
You forgot to mention how these cars haven’t been crash tested, and are applying for an exemption so they never have to be crash tested