Police in San Bruno have been patrolling for drunk drivers once they noticed a automotive touring erratically.
However this couldn’t be chalked as much as an impaired or distracted driver. There wasn’t anybody behind the wheel in any respect.
Officers have been bewildered to see the automotive — a self-driving Waymo robotaxi — make an unlawful U-turn at a visitors gentle proper in entrance of them, the San Bruno Police Division mentioned in a social media put up Saturday.
“It was a primary for each officers,” the division wrote within the put up, which included photographs of an officer peering by way of the entrance window on the empty driver’s seat.
As a result of the automotive didn’t have a human driver, officers couldn’t concern a ticket, police famous. As an alternative, officers contacted the corporate to allow them to know in regards to the “glitch,” they mentioned.
“Hopefully the reprogramming will preserve it from making any extra unlawful strikes,” police mentioned.
The incident highlights a niche in California regulation for the a whole bunch of autonomous automobiles roaming the streets of Los Angeles and San Francisco.
When self-driving automobiles violate the foundations of the highway, regulation enforcement can’t penalize them the identical method that they’ll people. The way in which state regulation has been interpreted, visitors tickets can solely be issued to an precise driver.
California lawmakers have sought to shut the enforcement loophole with new laws that can take impact in July — however critics say the regulation isn’t robust sufficient.
Waymo spokesperson Julia Ilina mentioned the corporate’s automobiles are already topic to shut, ongoing oversight by California regulators, and that the corporate’s autonomous driving system “is designed to respect the foundations of the highway.”
“We’re wanting into this example and are dedicated to enhancing highway security by way of our ongoing learnings and expertise,” Ilina mentioned.
The brand new regulation, Meeting Invoice 1777, was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom final yr and can permit law-enforcement businesses to report cases of autonomous car “noncompliance” to the Division of Motor Automobiles. The DMV is within the course of of hashing out the specifics, together with potential penalties.
The regulation in its unique type would have allowed self-driving automobiles to be ticketed for visitors violations, however it was watered down with amendments late within the legislative course of.
Among the many regulation’s loudest critics is the Teamsters union, which has mentioned the regulation takes California “backward.”
“I wager on a regular basis Californians want that, once they made a mistake driving, they received a courtesy word as an alternative of an costly ticket,” Peter Finn, the Western Area vp of the Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters, advised Mission Native final yr.
The union has pushed for extra oversight of self-driving automobiles, equivalent to laws mandating human operators in autonomous heavy obligation vehicles and different supply automobiles.
California’s tack is much less heavy handed than Arizona or Texas, two different states with a notable autonomous car presence. Each states up to date their legal guidelines years in the past to permit officers to concern citations to the registered proprietor of the car, even when no human is current.
Self-driving automobiles have sparked security considerations and drawn scrutiny at instances, together with after a 2023 incident wherein a pedestrian was significantly injured by a Cruise car.
A number of points with Tesla’s autonomous expertise have additionally garnered criticism, with the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration opening a probe into the corporate after 4 collisions — together with one which killed a pedestrian — occurred whereas drivers allowed their automobiles to pilot themselves in low-visibility circumstances together with fog, airborne mud and solar glare.
Waymo, which is owned by Google’s mum or dad firm Alphabet, says that its automobiles are making cities safer, with its automobiles much less accident-prone than these operated by people.
Based mostly on information collected by Waymo, their driverless automobiles within the 4 cities they function had 79% fewer airbag-deployment crashes, and 80% fewer injury-causing crashes than conventional automobiles driving the identical distance, as of June 2025.
