Robotaxis can break traffic laws without fines under new California rules

State authorities closed a regulatory gap this week that allowed Waymo and other robotaxi companies to dodge consequences when their cars broke traffic laws, but critics say a lack of fines means police can’t recoup enforcement costs as they do with human scofflaws.

Regulations issued April 28 by the California Department of Vehicles include a provision allowing police to issue notices of “noncompliance” to robotaxi companies when the vehicles commit moving violations.

“This really shows the DMV trying to make progress on fixing problems based on what we’ve seen go wrong,” said Phil Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University professor emeritus who studies autonomous-vehicle technology.

“The question is, ‘How is it going to work out?'”

Unlike with human drivers, robotaxi lawbreaking under the new rules, which the DMV issued administratively under its authority to regulate autonomous vehicles, does not carry fines or license-style penalties, such as points that can lead to suspension.

Instead, starting July 1, police alleging violations can put the noncompliance notice in the car or hand it to a robotaxi company representative. The company must report the incident to the DMV within 72 hours, or 24 hours if the officer has designated the incident a priority because of “a clear or potential danger or risk of injury to others,” the regulations said.

“It’s almost literally a note sent home from the teacher,” Koopman said. “They don’t even get fined. On the other hand, do you think $300 matters in the slightest to Waymo? The answer is, it doesn’t.”

It does, however, matter to local authorities. South Bay state Sen. Dave Cortese, who chairs the Senate’s Transportation Committee, said the regulations burden local jurisdictions with enforcing traffic laws on robotaxis, but without the revenue from fines that help pay for enforcement on human drivers.

“The state’s come in and basically highjacked law enforcement agencies to enforce state regulations about how robotaxis operate,” Cortese said.

Still, Koopman believes the violation notices represent progress. Robotaxi firms were already required to report collisions, and “this gives California a way to keep score of things that aren’t crashes,” Koopman said.

Robotaxis from industry leader Waymo, headquartered in Mountain View and owned by Google parent Alphabet, have blocked roadways and intersections, obstructed emergency vehicles, driven through emergency-response scenes, stopped in front of firehouse driveways, and drawn a federal probe by passing stopped school buses, Koopman noted.

Should companies let noncompliance notices pile up without fixing the causes of the violations, “California’s going to have a problem,” Koopman warned.

The DMV said it would investigate noncompliance notices and determine whether the robotaxi company must take action to fix the issue behind the violation. If the company can’t fix it, the DMV “may restrict, suspend, or revoke the manufacturer's operating permit,” the agency said.

The new regulations enhance public safety and impose “additional accountability” on robotaxi companies, DMV director Steve Gordon said in a news release.

Data from violation reports will help consumers choose how they want to get around, Cortese said, but he doesn’t believe the new rules themselves will push the companies toward better compliance with traffic laws.

“We’re going to have to have something well beyond today’s new DMV regulations to hold them accountable in a way that they really feel it for misbehavior on the roads,” Cortese said. “There needs to be ultimately some better, monetary way of holding them accountable.”

City officials continue to raise concerns about robotaxi behavior.

In March, officials from San Francisco and Austin told federal regulators that performance of Waymo’s vehicles has been getting worse, Wired magazine reported this week, citing an audio recording from a meeting between emergency officials and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Leaders complained that firefighters, police, and paramedics were having to deal with frozen or stuck Waymo cars during emergencies, the magazine reported. Mary Ellen Carroll, executive director of San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management, told federal officials, “They are committing more traffic violations,” according to the magazine.

Waymo did not immediately respond to questions about the regulations and the performance of its vehicles.

In the Bay Area and surroundings, Mountain View-based Waymo is authorized to operate driverless vehicles from San Jose northward to Cloverdale and from the coast eastward to Sacramento. Since Waymo’s bumpy launch in San Francisco in 2023, when it raised the ire of police and fire officials, the company’s white Jaguar SUVs with a whirligig on top have become commonplace on city streets and highways throughout the Bay Area.

Autonomous vehicle company Nuro, also headquartered in Mountain View, has permission to operate in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America can operate on highways in the Bay Area and Sacramento.

Other companies, including Amazon’s Zoox, are approved for testing without a backup driver.

Other provisions in the new rules include requiring that companies give first responders a way to manually override autonomous driving systems, and to speak remotely with company support staff within 30 seconds in case of an incident. Emergency officials can also issue emergency directives to robotaxi companies to get their vehicles out of specific areas within two minutes during emergencies.

Cortese believes robotaxi companies should be required to contact emergency dispatchers immediately in case of an accident, and provide information about the crash while first responders are on the way, as occurs when someone involved in or witnessing an accident calls 911. He is pushing to impose further rules with a bill, SB 1246, which would give cities and counties enforcement powers over autonomous vehicles.

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This story was originally published May 1, 2026 at 4:38 PM.