San Francisco Mayor Demands Stricter Rules for Autonomous Taxis After Waymo Incident

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has urged California regulators to tighten rules for autonomous vehicles following a July 4 incident where dozens of Waymo robotaxis became stuck in traffic and blocked key city streets. According to Lurie, the current regulatory framework does not account for the operation of self-driving cars during emergencies, such as large-scale events or power outages.

In a letter to the California Department of Transportation, Lurie proposed four key requirements for companies operating autonomous vehicles. These include the prompt removal of malfunctioning vehicles from roadways, real-time route adaptation, and mandatory sharing of data on failures and the location of blocked vehicles with local authorities.

Waymo, the largest operator of autonomous taxis in the region, has faced criticism over similar incidents. In December of last year, a mass power outage led to the shutdown of dozens of the company’s vehicles, and during the July 4 Independence Day celebrations, robotaxis blocked traffic in the city center despite prior agreements with authorities to limit service in event zones.

Currently, six companies are testing autonomous vehicles in the San Francisco Bay Area, including Waymo, Zoox (owned by Amazon), and Nuro. Waymo’s fleet, which numbers around 1,000 vehicles, completes over 500,000 paid trips weekly across 11 U.S. cities. State regulators are considering new standards to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.