It turns out that even the mayor of San Francisco, Daniel Lurie, once declared that the city should be a city. a test bed for emerging technologyhas its own limits. Especially when this emerging technology creates massive traffic jams that last for hours, immobilizing thousands of people.
Mayor Lurie asked state regulators to tighten regulations for autonomous vehicles nearly two weeks after a Waymo robot became immobile in heavy traffic on July 4, running out of power and shutting down major streets. The traffic jam that suffocates municipal buses has become a city-wide problem affecting thousands of people.
In a letter to the state Department of Transportation examined by TechCrunch, Lurie pointed to two incidents — a widespread power outage in December and the July 4 Golden Gate Bridge fireworks show that drew 100,000 spectators — that both stranded dozens of Waymo vehicles and paralyzed traffic. Originally posted by San Francisco Chronicle informed in the letter.
He noted in the letter that the incidents “demonstrated that California’s current regulatory framework does not adequately address how autonomous vehicles operate during major events, planned or unplanned. California’s challenge now is not only to ensure that autonomous vehicles can operate safely under normal conditions, but also whether they can operate reliably during emergencies.”
Lurie said autonomous vehicle manufacturers must be able to demonstrate four “core operational capabilities” and asked the California Department of Transportation to create statewide standards to avoid future problems like the July 4 blockade.
According to Lurie’s vision, companies will be required to immediately remove or move robotaxis from active travel lanes and adjust their routes, service area, and pick-up and drop-off locations in real time to keep people moving. Companies will also need to share real-time operational data with local agencies, including service outages, idle robot taxi locations and recovery efforts, as well as demonstrate through testing that they can handle large crowds and traffic.
TechCrunch has reached out to Waymo for comment. The article will be updated once the company responds.
Any company that wants to operate a robotaxi service in California must successfully pass two testing and deployment permit processes, one administered by the state Road Transport Department and the other by the Public Utilities Commission. California’s current regulatory framework is stricter than other states like Texas and Arizona, but that hasn’t deterred companies from operating there.
San Francisco and the wider area stretching south to Silicon Valley has long been a testing ground for autonomous vehicle technology. Six companies, including Nuro, Waymo and Zoox, have approvals to test driverless vehicles that allow them to drive vehicles without a human safety operator behind the wheel.
But the area has also become a launching pad for commercial services that require other permits from the DMV and CPUC.
Waymo is the largest, with about 1,000 robotaxis operating in the Bay Area today. But there is Amazon-owned Zoox, as well as a number of others that are testing or preparing to launch commercial operations. premium robotaxi service It will be operated by Uber. Tesla has a robotaxi service, but it doesn’t use driverless vehicles and doesn’t have permits to do so. Instead, Tesla has a charter transportation permit that allows its drivers to pick up and drop off riders across San Francisco in vehicles equipped with advanced driver assistance systems rather than fully autonomous software.
Waymo’s scale has made it a focal point for regulators in San Francisco and beyond. The company currently operates in 11 cities and says it completes more than 500,000 paid attractions every week. In San Francisco, Lurie noted that Waymo agreed to limit service near the waterfront on July 4 and even assigned a representative to the city’s emergency center. But that wasn’t enough to keep Waymos out of the heavy traffic outside that district.
Lurie said these voluntary actions are no longer enough — a reflection of how large Waymo’s fleet is. According to him, the four proposed requirements “will not harm autonomous vehicles, they will strengthen them.”
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