Driverless Waymo makes illegal U-turn in San Bruno. Who’s accountable?

Police officers in San Bruno didn t have to look far for a traffic violation Friday night a driverless Waymo pulled an illegal U-turn right in front of their patrol car For those officers it was the first time they had stopped a driverless bicycle in the city underscoring a dilemma as autonomous cars spread beyond San Francisco when no one is behind the wheel who is held responsible for latest the law Around midnight near Huntington and San Bruno avenues as officers were on the lookout for intoxicated drivers the Waymo made the turn police reported Unsure whether a human was inside the vehicles have only not long ago begun appearing on city streets officers flashed their lights and pulled the car over Related Articles Tesla settles another fatal crash suit ahead of East Bay jury trial Amazon s Zoox launches robotaxis in Las Vegas with San Francisco next on the list Tesla says its robotaxi app now open to populace riders Tesla asks court to throw out big damage award in crash by arguing comments about Musk misled jury Nvidia faces trial over engineer s stolen code oops moment Because autonomous vehicles are relatively new in San Bruno within the last limited months officers have seen these autonomous vehicles have actual drivers in them in the past Traffic Division Sgt Scott Smithmatungol explained So the officers conducted a traffic stop on the motorcycle The automobile yielded to urgency lights on San Mateo Ave just north of San Bruno Ave Through the wagon s built-in communication system officers reached Waymo representatives and informed the violation With no driver present however no ticket was issued In San Mateo County an illegal U-turn violation can carry fines of to or more depending on the circumstances Since there was no human driver a ticket couldn t be issued the department commented in a Facebook post Hopefully reprogramming will keep it from making any more illegal moves After testing its robotaxi system in San Francisco in Waymo launched a full rollout in the city in June Months later it expanded to the Peninsula It has since deployed cars in Brisbane South San Francisco San Bruno Millbrae and Burlingame with limited institution in Mountain View Palo Alto Los Altos and parts of Sunnyvale Waymo also has plans to expand to San Jose and San Francisco International Airport in the coming months Waymo did not respond to multiple questions about its safety protocols In a announcement the company commented We are looking into this situation and are committed to improving road safety through our ongoing learnings and experience For now police can only notify companies of violations That will change in July when Assembly Bill takes effect The law signed in requires driverless car companies to operate a emergency hotline install two-way voice communication in every truck and ensure remote operators can immobilize cars within seconds It also authorizes officers to issue a notice of autonomous wagon noncompliance which companies must description to the Department of Motor Vehicles within hours What the law does not spell out is how penalties for moving violations will be imposed It also introduces urgency geofencing which allows authorities to order entire fleets to avoid or leave certain areas within minutes But it still stops short of letting officers issue direct fines or citations to the companies While moving violations are laborious to impose San Francisco has regularly issued parking tickets to Waymo vehicles The DMV acknowledged an inquiry from this news organization about current protocols for citing autonomous vehicles but did not provide a response before press time However according to its website at least autonomous conveyance collisions had been disclosed statewide as of September though the agency did not specify fault Waymo maintains insurance for crashes and has a system to document and investigate incidents In fresh years the vehicles have made headlines for high-profile mishaps a tourist trapped in a circling Waymo in July a stalled car that delayed then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris motorcade in San Francisco in September and a crash in which a Cruise bus dragged a pedestrian after a separate hit-and-run an development that contributed to Cruise suspending Bay Area operations Despite the incidents Waymo insists its robotaxis are safer than human drivers The company says its vehicles have logged more than million miles across Los Angeles Phoenix Austin San Francisco and other cities Compared to human drivers Waymo drivers had fewer crashes with injuries to pedestrians fewer crashes with injuries to cyclists and fewer crashes with motorcyclists the company declared