Robotaxi regulations spread as cities act and feds stall

Cities are stepping in because federal law for self-driving cars has been stalled in Congress for years. Washington controls how vehicles are built, but local governments control how streets are used, and that is the lever they are now pulling.

It’s a big reversal. Nevada became the first state to legalize self-driving cars on public roads back in June 2011, after Google pushed lawmakers there to let it test prototypes. For most of the decade that followed, states and cities competed to look friendly to the technology. Now many of the same places are going back to rewrite the rules.

The pushback isn’t only coming from big Democratic cities. New York City, Chicago and Washington, DC, still haven’t legalized driverless cars, but Republican-led states such as Iowa, Kentucky, South Dakota and Oklahoma are also weighing tighter limits.

Minneapolis offers the sharpest example. On Oct. 1 the city council passed an ordinance by a 7-to-6 vote that would require autonomous vehicle companies, including Waymo, Tesla and Zoox, to get a city license and keep a person in the driver’s seat on every trip. Supporters said it would protect thousands of local rideshare drivers. The ordinance wasn’t due to start until October 2027, leaving time for state lawmakers to act.

Mayor Jacob Frey vetoed it the next day, calling it a “backdoor ban”. In mid-October the council tried to override him and lost 7-to-5, short of the nine votes it needed. So for now, driverless cars can keep operating in Minneapolis without a human aboard.

San Diego took a softer route. After the California Public Utilities Commission let Waymo launch public rides there on Sept. 1, without the city having any say, the city council voted 8-0 on Sept. 14 to ask for local control. Council members were especially worried about robotaxis at San Diego’s airport, one of the last reliable places for taxi drivers to earn a living, and about clips of driverless cars stopping in traffic or blocking first responders. Waymo’s state and local policy manager, Adam Lane, called the move “extraordinarily premature” and said the company had already trained nearly 300 local first responders.

The biggest concrete change so far is in California. Senate Bill 1246, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September and taking effect on July 1, 2028, moves the job of dealing with a stuck or crashed robotaxi from firefighters and police to the company that runs it.

Under the law, operators must send their own incident technicians to crashes and blockages when emergency crews ask, keep enough remote staff on hand to respond right away, and tell local dispatch centers where their cars are during any fleetwide failure. Local authorities can fine a company when one of its cars blocks emergency work for more than 30 minutes. People who drive a car remotely must be in the US and hold a California license. The exact response times and fines are still waiting on rules from the state DMV.

The fight isn’t over. In late October, rideshare drivers and public workers rallied outside a state utilities commission meeting in San Francisco, where nearly three dozen speakers argued that the commission’s draft rules still give cities too little control. One sticking point: the draft would drop the separate approval step before a company starts airport service, as long as the airport agrees.

Not every city is writing a robotaxi law. Some are using powers they already have. Culver City looked at emergency pauses on building permits for robotaxi fleet depots, and Santa Monica used its noise and traffic rules to limit charging hubs that run around the clock.

In Austin, firefighters raised a different worry. Tesla’s Cybercab has no steering wheel or pedals, which could make it hard for crews to move one that stalls at a scene. They want developers to set up fast towing plans and a direct line to a human operator in emergencies.

For riders, the practical upshot is uneven service. A robotaxi that runs freely in one city might be barred from the airport in the next, limited to certain hours, or not allowed at all. If you’re counting on one for a trip, check that the service actually covers your pickup and drop-off points before you go.

Safety numbers are part of the argument. An Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study found Waymo’s cars had a 68% lower rate of crash involvement than human drivers in the same areas and time periods, and Waymo itself claims a 94% drop in crashes causing serious injuries. Critics answer that freezes during power outages and cars blocking emergency scenes are exactly the gaps local rules are meant to close.

For drivers, the stakes are jobs. In Minneapolis, San Diego and San Francisco, the loudest backers of local limits have been Uber, Lyft and taxi drivers who fear being pushed out.

Companies are adapting rather than fighting every city. Waymo, Zoox and Aurora are favoring states with laws that stop individual cities from banning the technology, and industry groups such as the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association are pressing Washington for the same protection nationwide. Some are also looking abroad: Waymo plans to expand in Tokyo, Munich and London, and Uber is lining up vehicles for Dubai, Madrid and Manchester.