At first, it appeared to be a standard traffic stop for an illegal U-turn, but then officers found no one behind the wheel of the offending vehicle.
Police in the San Francisco suburb of San Bruno pulled over a Waymo autonomous taxi after observing the vehicle conducting the illegal maneuver, but they were left wondering what to do after discovering there was no human driver to ticket for the infraction, according to a report by the Associated Press.
Officers explained that they were unable to issue a ticket, given that "citation books don't have a box for 'robot,'" per the AP.
"That's right … no driver, no hands, no clue," the San Bruno Police Department said in a now-viral social-media post about the incident, the AP reported.
The situation highlighted the legal gray area in which autonomous taxi services now operate, as well as the questions raised by self-driving vehicles more generally. When an autonomous vehicle breaks the law, or worse, causes an accident, who is to be held accountable?
Some commenters to the San Bruno PD's social-media post expressed outrage that police had not issued a ticket, but the department claimed its hands were tied. Under current regulations, parking tickets can be left on a vehicle, but issuing a citation for a moving violation requires a human driver, per the AP.
While to date, Waymo has operated primarily in major cities with large police forces and massive budgets, the incident also highlighted the challenges that autonomous vehicles will pose to smaller departments with limited resources.
"We're not a large agency like San Francisco," Scott Smithmatungol, a sergeant for the San Bruno Police Department, told the AP, emphasizing that, as a suburban community with only 40,000 residents and a police force of just 50 officers, San Bruno was not well-situated to grapple with such large policy questions.
California lawmakers have tried to close the legal loophole with new legislation that will take effect in July 2026, though critics have said the new law does not go far enough in addressing the situation, the Los Angeles Times reported. The law will allow police departments to report offending autonomous vehicles to the state's Department of Motor Vehicles, though key details, such as what penalties companies will face, remain to be determined.
As police departments, lawmakers, and regulators try to figure out how best to hold autonomous-vehicle companies accountable for their vehicles' actions, juries around the country have begun to have their say as to who they believe to be at fault. In August, a Florida jury found Tesla liable for $243 million in damages for a fatal crash involving one of the company's vehicles operating in Autopilot mode.
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I want one ✅ For its part, Waymo has promised to learn from the situation in an effort to improve its autonomous vehicles' performance.
"We are looking into this situation and are committed to improving road safety through our ongoing learnings and experience," said Julia Ilina, a Waymo spokesperson, according to the LA Times.
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