Overview
- The Committee on Transportation and Environment voted the bill down on Thursday, with Chair Charles Allen and Christina Henderson supporting it and Zachary Parker, Elissa Silverman and Mayor-elect Janeese Lewis George opposing.
- The Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Authorization Amendment Act of 2026 would have moved the city from supervised testing to limited driverless testing and aimed to allow small-scale commercial robotaxi service by 2028.
- Key provisions in the redraft included hard caps of 200 vehicles per company and 800 total, explicit rights for rideshare and AV maintenance workers to organize, strict data and accessibility rules, and staged testing requirements.
- Supporters said permit fees and a vehicle-miles-traveled charge would raise funds for displaced drivers and retraining, while unions such as SEIU 32BJ warned the rollout would cost jobs and drain local income to outside tech companies.
- With the committee defeat, the bill’s future is uncertain and could be delayed to next year when the new mayor’s appointees take office, while companies like Waymo that have expanded local facilities face the risk of shifting investments elsewhere.