"Industry experts agreed that legislation restricting the use of autonomous vehicles on a county-by-county basis would be unwieldy and problematic. But that's what Supervisor Jackie Fielder called today for in the wake of a Waymo running over beloved 16th Street store cat KitKat. Industry experts also agreed that both Waymo's cars and its management must do better if the company hopes to regain community trust."
"Missy Cummings, the head of George Mason University's Autonomy and Robotics Center, said it would present a "bureaucratic nightmare" to create county-by-county prohibitions at the voters' behest. Cummings, who also consults for the state of California, does think that counties ought to be able to request carve-outs based upon special conditions - an area with a high concentration of homeless encampments, for example - so autonomous vehicles can be geo-fenced out of those zones."
Supervisor Jackie Fielder announced plans to introduce an ordinance asking state legislators to allow voters to decide whether autonomous vehicles may operate on county streets after a Waymo vehicle ran over a neighborhood store cat, KitKat. The state Public Utilities Commission currently issues permits for driverless cars across California cities. Industry experts said county-by-county prohibitions would be unwieldy and problematic but urged Waymo to improve vehicle performance and management to regain trust. Missy Cummings called county-level bans a "bureaucratic nightmare" while supporting limited geo-fenced carve-outs for special conditions like high concentrations of homeless encampments. Teamsters representatives emphasized job threats and demanded human oversight and protections.
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