01/05/2024

As Robotaxis Hit City Streets, Local Officials Often Have Little Power Over Them

Cities barred by state law from regulating driverless cars must resort to diplomacy

A week before Halloween last year, city of Austin employee Rachel Castignoli sent a polite but firm email to a government relations staffer at self-driving vehicle developer Cruise. “We would like you to not operate between 5 pm and 9 pm on Halloween,” she wrote in bold text highlighted in yellow, documents obtained by WIRED through a public records request show. More children are killed by vehicles on Halloween than on any other night of the year, she wrote, and the city wanted to limit traffic—regardless of whether software or a human was behind the wheel. “Please acknowledge receipt of this email,” Castignoli concluded, also in bold, adding “Thanks!”

Castignoli’s email is an example of the strange position of officials in some U.S. cities chosen by Cruise and rivals such as Alphabet’s Waymo as testing grounds for self-driving taxi services. Castignoli works for Austin’s Transportation and Public Works Department, which like local agencies around the country, is responsible for what happens on city streets, setting speed limits and traffic restrictions.

But in Texas, California, Arizona and a handful of other states where self-driving vehicles are being tested and even transport paying customers, local officials’ hands are tied when it comes to robot cars, because advocates for the autonomous vehicle industry have pushed for legislation that places the power to regulate their operations in the hands of state officials. (Federal officials, meanwhile, regulate vehicle features and design.) Castignoli could only request that Cruise pause its operations, not order it to do so.

Please select this link to read the complete article from WIRED.