Federal lawmakers are 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 Congressman Kevin Mullin on the steps of Fire Station 4 in Mission Bay on Tuesday, as he 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. Yet despite his high profile, and 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 SF’s semiquincentennial July 4th celebration at the Golden Gate Bridge, which city officials had banked on as symbolizing a comeback from the “doomloop” 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.”
