Waymos, robotaxis can now be ticketed by California police. But how exactly?

An autonomous Waymo all-electric Jaguar drives a passenger through the 2nd Street tunnel in Los Angeles on April 22.

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Driverless cars haven’t always obeyed the rules of the road but, unlike vehicles with humans behind the wheel, they’ve gotten away with it.

That’s about to change.

A slew of statewide autonomous vehicle regulations based on Assembly Bill 1777 will go into effect July 1 — including a process for law enforcement to issue a “notice of AV noncompliance,” the California Department of Motor Vehicles announced Tuesday.

Here’s how this new law will work, and what other rules self-driving vehicle manufacturers will soon have to follow:

California Robotaxis open for business in Los Angeles Angelenos can hail a robotaxi with the Waymo One app starting Tuesday. There are about 100 taxis in the Los Angeles fleet — but they don’t drive freeways.

Where the rubber and robots meet the road

The new regulation was developed “to address the gap in how moving violations are handled for autonomous vehicles,” said Jonathan Groveman, a DMV spokesperson.

Although California is home to several autonomous vehicle operators, the most expansive at this point is Waymo — which has driverless robotaxis navigating passengers around the San Francisco Bay Area and dozens of cities in Los Angeles County.

Seven months ago, a self-driving Waymo made an illegal U-turn at a traffic light right in front of police officers in San Bruno.

The image of an officer peering into the empty driver’s seat of the offending vehicle may have been good for a chuckle, but other incidents have been no laughing matter. Situations such as a Waymo failing to stop for a school bus in Atlanta or striking a child in Santa Monica highlighted how law enforcement officers couldn’t carry out traditional traffic enforcement with driverless cars.

According to previous state law, traffic violations were issued to a human driver “to address driving behavior,” and were “applied to that individual’s driver license,” Groveman said in an email.

“Because autonomous vehicles do not have a human driver — and existing citations must be issued to a licensed person — the law establishes a new mechanism that allows moving violations to be issued to an autonomous vehicle manufacturer,” he said.

Manufacturers must submit a “First Responder Interaction Plan” to the DMV and post it online, according to Groveman. Those plans explain how law enforcement can interact with the vehicle and where officers can find important information, such as registration and insurance documents.

“Driverless vehicles are expected to recognize law enforcement lights and sirens and pull over when appropriate,” Groveman said.

If there’s a scenario of a traffic violation involving a driverless car that results in a collision, for example, an officer may issue the violation to the manufacturer’s designated person who will arrive on the scene, according to the new law.

In other circumstances, if an officer does not conduct a traffic stop, they will provide a copy of the violation to the DMV and the manufacturer within 72 hours of the observed incident.

Waymo spokesperson Julia Ilina previously told The Times that the company’s vehicles already are subject to close, ongoing oversight by California regulators, and that the company’s autonomous driving system “is designed to respect the rules of the road.”

VIDEO | 02:03 Waymos, robotaxis can now be ticketed by California police. But how exactly? Share via Close extra sharing options Email Facebook X LinkedIn Threads Reddit WhatsApp Copy Link URL Copied!

Autonomous vehicle advocates have said driverless taxis improve road safety conditions in communities in which they operate. In the recent Santa Monica incident, for example, the Waymo vehicle braked hard before impact — resulting in a “significant reduction in impact speed and severity” that the company said “is a demonstration of the material safety benefit of the Waymo Driver.”

How do violations work?

Beginning July 1, California law enforcement agencies may issue notices of AV noncompliance when an autonomous vehicle doesn’t obey traffic laws. Since such vehicles operate through a mix of integrated hardware and software systems, “the manufacturer is the entity responsible for correcting the behavior,” Groveman said.

When a notice is submitted, the DMV will review the incident, conduct any necessary investigation and determine what remediation, if any, is required, he said.

“If a manufacturer is unable to correct the issue or if repeated noncompliance occurs, the department may take administrative action, including restricting or suspending the manufacturer’s operating permit,” Groveman said.

The other entity that investigates and issues recalls on autonomous vehicles is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Waymo specifically has been the focus of several NHTSA investigations, including a recall of more than 1,200 vehicles last year because of a software defect that led to a series of minor crashes.

Other new regulations for driverless cars

Under newly adopted state regulations, autonomous vehicle manufacturers must:

Complete a total of 50,000 or 500,000 miles of testing, depending on the vehicle’s weight classification, before applying to get the vehicle on the road. Testing must include trips with a human behind the wheel for safety as well as completely driverless journeys.

Annually update first responder interaction plans, access to manual vehicle override systems, two-way communication links with 30-second response times and training requirements to ensure safe and timely interactions.

California Waymo sues Santa Monica, and the city sues right back: Court fight ahead Waymo and Santa Monica are headed to court after the city ordered the company to cease overnight charging of its autonomous vehicles at two facilities, claiming the lights and beeping at the lots were a nuisance to residents.

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