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. ...

@#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.