Waymo, robotaxi operators face new bill over emergency response gaps

Rep. Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.) is set to introduce a bill in Congress this week that would direct federal regulators to establish minimum national safety standards for autonomous-vehicle operators, adding fresh regulatory pressure on companies like Waymo. The proposed AV Emergency Response Coordination Act follows a string of incidents in which autonomous vehicles have blocked ambulances and fire trucks, driven into active crime scenes, and failed to recognize safety signals such as traffic cones and flares. A TechCrunch investigation earlier this year found cases in which Waymo relied on first responders to manually drive its vehicles when they ran into trouble.

Mullin unveiled the bill Tuesday at a San Francisco press conference alongside Mayor Daniel Lurie, fire chief Dean Crispen, and Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety president Cathy Chase. “We have seen disturbing, and frankly, an unacceptable number of incidents where autonomous vehicles inadvertently interfere with emergency responders,” Mullin said. Crispen said robotaxis have picked up and dropped off passengers directly in front of fire stations and ambulance deployment facilities, obstructing emergency access, despite the fire department’s work with AV operators.

The bill would require AV companies to provide clear emergency protocols for first responders, set up a 24-hour hotline giving public officials direct access to the companies, and direct the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to develop minimum national emergency-response standards. It would also let public officials “geofence” AVs — restricting where the vehicles can operate during emergencies or other ongoing safety hazards — a provision that would give city and public-safety officials real-time control rather than relying on companies to self-regulate.

Waymo said it has long supported a federal framework for AV standards and backs efforts to standardize how AV developers work with first responders. The pressure follows a July letter from NHTSA administrator Jonathan Morrison to AV developers stating that the agency had identified a clear pattern of driverless AVs interfering with law enforcement and other first responders, and demanding solutions by the end of the month — a deadline that has since passed. Lurie has separately pressed California regulators for stricter AV rules following an hours-long July 4 traffic jam worsened by Waymo robotaxis that had run out of power, and a December outage that left dozens of Waymo vehicles stranded.

Why it matters

The bill would hand city and public-safety officials a real-time lever — geofencing — to restrict robotaxi operations during emergencies, shifting leverage away from AV companies’ self-regulation model at a moment when regulators, lawmakers, and city officials are increasingly aligned in pushing back on the industry.