Denver can't ticket a Waymo with nobody behind the wheel
As driverless Waymos spread through Denver, city officials admit there's no legal way to cite a car that runs a red light or breaks a barricade if no human is inside.
What happened: Denver Police say that when a Waymo robotaxi runs a stop sign, speeds, or drives into a closed area, there is currently no way under state law or city ordinance to issue it a ticket, because no driver is behind the wheel to cite. A human driver using Tesla's Full Self-Driving or similar systems can still be ticketed and can contest it in court, but an empty autonomous vehicle falls into a legal gap. The issue surfaced after Waymo launched robotaxi service in Denver last month, and its cars were seen driving onto a freshly paved road near active construction and passing barricades into a farmers market.
Why it matters: Denver Police, the City Attorney's Office and the city's transportation department are now looking at legislation, possibly allowing citations to go to a vehicle's registered owner, to close the gap. State Rep. Chad Clifford is drafting a bill and has even floated a ballot measure to ban autonomous vehicles outright, saying he's wary of how the cars handle icy Denver roads. Public opinion is split: an August poll found 58% of Denver voters unlikely to ride a Waymo, while 32% said they would try it. Rideshare drivers, numbering over 35,000 statewide, have reason to worry about being displaced.
How it works, plainly: Traffic citations are built around the idea of a licensed driver who can be held responsible and appear in court. Take the driver out of the car and that legal chain breaks, which is exactly what Denver officials say is happening now. California and Tennessee have already passed laws creating ways to ticket autonomous vehicles for moving violations, giving Denver a template. Waymo says its cars are built to recognize police and emergency vehicles, pull over automatically, and let officers reach a company response team around the clock, which is how it currently handles roadside encounters in place of a normal traffic stop.
The rollout: Waymo has been developing the technology since 2009 and now runs driverless service in 15 cities, with 17 more planned, including Chicago, New York and Tokyo. An Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study found Waymo's fully driverless cars had 68% fewer police-reportable crashes per mile than human drivers in San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Austin, and were far less likely to rear-end or be rear-ended. That data doesn't cover Denver or winter conditions, and so far Denver Police have logged only one Waymo-involved crash, where a human driver rear-ended another car into a stopped Waymo.