Waymo, robotaxi operators face fresh scrutiny over emergency response failures
Waymo and other robotaxi operators are facing increased scrutiny — and possible new federal requirements — over how their autonomous vehicles interact with emergency responders, a regulatory risk that’s becoming harder for the industry to shrug off.
Rep. Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.) is the latest lawmaker to put pressure on the industry with a proposed bill that would direct federal regulators to establish minimum national safety standards for autonomous vehicle operators. The proposed legislation, expected to be introduced in Congress this week, follows a number of incidents in which autonomous vehicles have blocked ambulances and fire trucks, driven into active crime scenes, and failed to recognize safety signals such as traffic cones and flares.
A TechCrunch investigation earlier this year identified a number of incidents in which Waymo relied on first responders to manually drive its vehicles when they encountered issues.
The legislation, called the AV Emergency Response Coordination Act, was...
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