“Since there was no human driver, a ticket couldn’t be issued (our citation books don’t have a box for “robot”),” reads the post.
The department said that it had alerted Waymo of the glitch
That’s not how it fucking works
How have you guys not bothered to prepare for this? It’s not the cop’s fault, but it is not a secret that there are Waymo cars in San Francisco. How is this something that nobody thought of?
Last year, California governor Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill that allows police officers to issue a “notice of noncompliance” if a driverless car breaks traffic laws. The law goes into effect in July 2026.
Oh, pardon me. So you’re on top of it.
The bill was introduced by assemblymember Phil Ting of San Francisco amid several incidents in the city, including driverless cars blocking traffic, dragging a pedestrian, interfering with firetrucks, and entering active crime scenes.
And your plan was to call up Waymo and ask them politely to improve their tech please? Or, that becomes the plan as of 2026?
With the new law, first responders can order a company to move autonomous vehicles out of an area, and the company has two minutes to direct its cars to leave or avoid that area.
The San Bruno police department, in response to people who believed officers were being lenient, reaffirmed: “There is legislation in the works that will allow officers to issue the company notices.”
My guy these cars went on the road EIGHT FUCKING YEARS AGO
The big invasion of Ukraine was years in the future, Covid hadn’t happened and wasn’t going to any time soon, Obama had just stepped down, CALIFORNIA EXPLAIN
Dude, you can’t just penalize a corporation. That would be commiesocialism or something.
According to the government, “Corporations are people too.”
I’ll believe a corporation is a person when The Texas department of corrections executes one.
I’ll believe a corporation is a person when one is successfully murdered. I don’t care who does it.
And just like real people. They’re dead when they have no more money.
And yet, they can sell their debt
That’s only because the liberals government took away Americans’ right to buy and sell people. Gotta bundle debt and people together for good business.
Back then, both in the US and the UK, the liberal philosophers of the times considered it an infringement on property rights to restrict the buying and selling of slaves. Liberalism: A Counter-History goes over the debates at the time.
Republicans love to point to those days to claim they’re not racist today
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You wouldn’t molotovcocktail a car (just because it’s putting everyone’s safety at risk simply by existing)
Surely there is a leftist or unhoused person that could be scapegoated and punished for this.
I believe the federal gubment just declared being anti capitalism is considered an act of terror or something.
But exactly! You guys wanted hypercapitalism, now you complain?
Just tell the cops they’re allowed to stab the tires and have it towed. The problem will fix itself one way or another.
You’ve got the right spirit but I think it’s unlikely that the car would realize its tires have been destroyed, I think it would just keep driving around just with less control over its actions which might not be the best.
Give them a little hand-carried version of The Grappler, and then if Waymo has some kind of concern about what has happened to the brakes and suspension and all sorts of shit that is broken now, just give 'em one of these.
I’m not going to stop you, but the car definitely knows the tyre status. Most modern cars have tyre pressure sensing.
Naw. Cone ‘em and then tow them- at owner’s expense.
The state’s allowed to ban the company from the roads if they bother too many people or officials—a fairly enormous stick.
Make the whole world’s governments mad? Investors won’t be too happy. Huggge stick.
It does break from our “one immediate fine/ticket for one infraction” paradigm so I understand why it looks bad.
Gosh can you imagine if they drop our numbers from ~seven Californians killed on our roads every day to [far] fewer… (guy can dream, obvy they’re not perfect)
If the waymo hadnt been painted white they would have unloaded a clip into it instead
“Since there was no human driver, a ticket couldn’t be issued (our citation books don’t have a box for “robot”),” reads the post.
Did nobody think to just write “waymo” and use the company HQ as the driver’s address?
Better yet, ask the waymo car for a drivers license. None present? Impound.
The government is great
You finally found out how long it takes to get laws into effect bro.
Obama was elected in 2008 and took office in 2009. The biggest overhaul to American health care since FDR went into effect on March 23, 2010, and that was with the US congress involved, which always inevitably turns everything into more of a shit show than it needs to be.
You can do it, you just have to be something other than dysfunctional wreckage to do it.
Just impound the vehicle when the driver refuses to sign, or rip the axle out.
You know, like if it had a human owner.
Corporations are people right. So why aren’t they sent all these tickets.
Honestly, should just impound all of the fleet immediately.
If the goal of the ticket is to stop the danger and enforce compliance, it has to be to the company via the entire fleet, and it must hurt them financially enough to immediately change the behavior.
Tickets have never been about stopping danger, they are a fundraiser.
Aircraft must have pilots in command.
Radio stations must have control operators.
Pedestrian manglers can just roam free!
Even a train, the thing that runs on rails has operators
It really doesn’t take much intelligence to figure out who needs to get the ticket for that.
Follow the money. Who owns the car?
Spoken like someone who hasn’t had to interact with American law enforcement much.
Being intelligent is quite literally a disqualifying characteristic.
It’s not a question of what feels right, it’s a question of what the law actually says. I’m pretty sure most of us are actually not all that fond of the idea of cops making up or creatively reinterpreting the law to suit their own whims, so I don’t see why we should suddenly be cheering for it now.
If the law isn’t written in such a way as to be able to apply to driverless vehicles, that’s a problem that lawmakers need to correct.
Lawmakers are too busy focusing on irrelevant distractions to be addressing gaps in the law.
And, just so we’re clear, you’re saying you’re cool with the alternative being proposed here, which is that the police just make up the law as they see fit?
I don’t believe I said that, nor implied it ?
These things make illegal left turns across double yellows and even opposing left turn lanes. They will literally stop in the middle of the road and block traffic to make the turn, instead of pulling up to the nearest center lane/left turn lane. I report it every time through the Waymo app but they keep doing it regardless.
It’s at the point where I have to carefully plan my route to prevent the car from making stupid illegal moves. But even with the mistakes I still trust them more than I do a human driver. They just need more refinement, but Google doesn’t seem to actually give a fuck about my feedback.
That said, at least they actually go to the pickup marker I set and wait patiently for me to arrive, unlike Uber/Lyft drivers who ignore your pickup spot, and then immediately cancel the ride when they don’t see me because they went to the wrong pickup spot!
why in the world would you trust this thing more than a human driver? Like do you feel it’s more predictable or smth?
I used to work there, and I’m in the same boat as [email protected]. I’ve got over 10k miles behind the wheel (most from the early days when the software sometimes felt like it was actively trying to kill you) and even with all the stupid shit they still do, I trust it more than 95% of the people on the road. It doesn’t have an ego and drive angry, it doesn’t get distracted by a phone, etc.
Granted, driving near them can be rough, as they’re programmed to follow the laws. And since most people don’t, it can be a bit jarring as it’s not what you expect from other cars.
Because I’ve been on over 50 rides totalling nearly 1000 miles, so I know what to expect. They’re very consistent and very cautious; the radar sees everything (you can see what it sees on a screen), even once avoided an accident I would have never seen coming.
Like I said, the kinks have to be worked out, but they’re still 10x safer than any human driver IMO. I’ll take a Waymo any day over an Uber/Lyft driver. The best part is you don’t have to tip! Hell, you don’t even have to talk to anybody, because there’s nobody to talk to! All of my rides are blissfully silent.
The entire reason they’re deploying AI in the battlefields is to avoid accountability for those firing. The lack of accountability is an intended feature, not a bug.
A troubling conclusion I hadn’t yet come to. God damn.
They’re not being subtle about it. The weapons companies are offering it as a selling point at the conventions.
Great RoboCop with better weapons.
I can see rego plates in the picture, are they not linked to anyone? Ticket the owner, it’s not rocket science.
And boot it to prevent repeat offense.
Law says the driver is ticketed for driving infractions.
Surprised Pikachu!
Prepare to run people over!
May a firefighter tear the cars in half using the jaws of life.
Doesn’t the car have an owner? Because in Brazil, the ticket always goes to the owner, even when someone else is driving - something that has its share of problems
That’s how a lot of US states do it for speed cameras.
Just realized I’m not sure if the same happens when you get pulled over or are driving a rental but in general the idea fixes more problems than it causes.
Easy, Just impound it. When they have to deal with going to get them in person, they’ll stop the illegal shit
It’s easy just tow it!!! Let god sort it out because the tech is not there yet
Ticket the damn manufacturer. They need to be made to understand not to put substandard devices into public hands
Impound the car too!
How did you make these legal and not put in place a process for this? Absolutely corrupt incompetence.
I wonder, if they hinder the car enough, wouldn’t that cause the remote operator to connect to it? Sounds like you’ve now identified a driver :-)
