It turns out that even San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, who once declared that the city should be a test bed for emerging technologies, has his limits. This is especially true when emerging technologies are causing massive traffic jams that can last for hours, leaving thousands stuck in gridlock.
Mayor Lurie has asked state regulators to tighten rules for self-driving cars, nearly two weeks after heavy traffic on the Fourth of July left a Waymo robotaxi stuck and ran out of power, blocking a major thoroughfare, further worsening gridlock. Traffic jams that confine city shuttles have become a city-wide problem affecting thousands of people.
In a letter to the state Department of Transportation seen by TechCrunch, Lurie pointed to two events: widespread power outages in December and the Golden Gate Bridge fireworks display that drew 100,000 spectators on the Fourth of July. Both incidents stranded dozens of Waymo vehicles and disrupted traffic. The San Francisco Chronicle first reported on the letter.
“This incident has shown that California’s current regulatory framework does not adequately address how autonomous vehicles operate during major incidents, planned or not,” he said in the letter. “The challenge for California now is not only whether autonomous vehicles can operate safely under normal conditions, but also whether they can operate reliably under extraordinary circumstances.”
Lurie said self-driving car manufacturers must be able to demonstrate four “core operational capabilities” and called on the California Department of Transportation to establish statewide standards to prevent future problems such as the Fourth of July gridlock incident.
Lurie’s vision calls for companies to immediately remove or redeploy robotaxi from active travel lanes to keep people moving, and to adapt in real time by adjusting routes, service areas, and pickup and drop-off locations. Companies must also share real-time operational data, including service outages, stationary robotaxi locations, and recovery efforts, with local agencies, and demonstrate through testing that they can handle large influxes of people and traffic.
TechCrunch has reached out to Waymo for comment. We will update this article as soon as we receive a response from the company.
Companies wishing to operate robotaxi services in California must successfully undergo two testing and deployment permit processes. One is administered by the state Department of Motor Vehicles and the other is administered by the Public Utilities Commission. California’s existing regulatory framework is more stringent than other states such as Texas and Arizona, but that hasn’t stopped companies from operating there.
San Francisco and the larger region stretching south of Silicon Valley have long been a test bed for self-driving car technology. Six companies, including Nuro, Waymo, and Zoox, have driverless testing permits that allow them to drive their vehicles without safety personnel.
But the area also became the starting point for commercial services that required other permits from the DMV and CPUC.
Waymo is currently the largest company in the Bay Area, operating about 1,000 robotaxi. But there are many others that are testing or ready to launch commercial operations, including Amazon-owned Zoox and a premium robotaxi service that will be operated by Uber. Although Tesla has a branded robotaxi service, it does not use driverless vehicles and does not have permission to do so. Instead, Tesla received a charter permit to pick up and drop off passengers throughout 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 rides each week. In San Francisco, Lurie noted that Waymo agreed to limit service near the waterfront on the Fourth of July and even assigned a representative to the city’s emergency center. However, this was not enough to protect Waymos from traffic delays outside the area.
Lurie said these voluntary actions are no longer enough. This reflects how large Waymo’s fleet has grown. He said the four proposed requirements would “strengthen autonomous vehicles, not weaken them.”
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