San Francisco Mayor demands tighter rules for Waymo robotaxis

Lurie, once an advocate for positioning San Francisco as a premier testbed for emerging tech, argues that current regulatory frameworks are failing to account for major public incidents. In a letter to the California Department of Transportation, the mayor highlighted how both a December power outage and the Independence Day surge paralyzed city streets, trapping municipal shuttles and thousands of commuters behind stalled driverless cars.

The mayor is now calling for four mandatory operational capabilities to be codified as statewide standards. He proposes that companies must be required to immediately relocate stalled vehicles, adapt routes in real-time during peak crowds, share live operational data with local agencies, and prove through rigorous testing that their systems can function under extreme traffic conditions. While Waymo attempted voluntary restrictions during the July 4 holiday and stationed a representative at the city’s emergency center, Lurie maintains that such informal measures are insufficient to manage a fleet that now exceeds 1,000 vehicles in the Bay Area alone. He contends these stricter rules will not stifle innovation, but rather solidify the reliability of the technology as it scales.