California cops confused after trying ro ticket a Waymo

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Police in a Silicon Valley suburb were flummoxed last weekend after pulling over a self-driving Waymo robo-taxi for making an illegal turn, then finding no driver they could issue with a ticket.

Posted by LampLighter at 01:45 PM | 7 COMMENTS | permalink

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More from the article ...

... The incident happened in San Bruno, where cops set up a checkpoint to catch intoxicated drivers. As cars lined up, one vehicle, a self-driving Waymo, pulled an illegal U-turn and began to drive away.

The cops fired up their lights and the Waymo pulled over automatically as the robo-cab operator trains its cars to do. But the police officers who pursued the robo-taxi couldn't hand out a ticket, since the driverless taxi had nobody inside. ...

#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-09-30 01:46 PM

Seriously? There's no email or text number to send a ticket? This possible situation never came up in the years of planning and drafting rules?

#2 | Posted by TFDNihilist at 2025-09-30 03:27 PM

" Seriously? There's no email or text number to send a ticket?"

I'm with you on this one. There's got to be someone owning, registering, and insuring these vehicles; ticket THEM.

#3 | Posted by Danforth at 2025-09-30 03:32 PM

They can't treat it like a toll? They'll mail those bills to you......

#4 | Posted by eberly at 2025-09-30 03:36 PM

" The cops fired up their lights and the Waymo pulled over automatically as the robo-cab operator trains its cars to do. "

Then ticket the trainer/programmer who clearly didn't teach the robot basic driving laws, like when U-turns are illegal.

#5 | Posted by Danforth at 2025-09-30 03:37 PM

@#5 ... hen ticket the trainer/programmer who clearly didn't teach the robot basic driving laws ...

I disagree.

You don't ticket a driving instructor when one of their former students makes a driving error.

imo, the entity responsible should be the entity that put the car on the road.

#6 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-09-30 03:47 PM

Possibly it was drunk on Ethanol and was trying to avoid the checkpoint.

#7 | Posted by TFDNihilist at 2025-10-01 01:12 PM

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