Overview
- Rep. Kevin Mullin unveiled the AV Emergency Response Coordination Act Tuesday in San Francisco, proposing a 24-hour hotline, required emergency protocols, and a process that would let officials geofence robotaxis.
- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration earlier this month told developers it had identified a pattern of driverless vehicles interfering with law enforcement and fire crews and gave companies a deadline to propose fixes that has since passed.
- High-profile failures in San Francisco have driven the push for federal action, including a July 4 traffic meltdown where several Waymo vehicles ran out of battery and were towed and a December outage that left dozens of robotaxis stranded.
- Waymo has publicly backed the idea of standardized guidance and said it already trains with first responders, and San Francisco leaders including the mayor and fire chief urged Congress to give regulators clearer authority because state oversight is split.
- If enacted, the law would give federal regulators new tools to impose binding emergency-response rules or permit conditions, a change that could alter where robotaxis may operate in cities and how quickly companies expand services.