SF Mayor Daniel Lurie is urging state transportation authorities to enact stricter AV regulations following major disruptions during the July 4 celebrations.
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The mayor of San Francisco is tired of his city serving as an autonomous vehicle test track.In a letter sent to California transportation regulators on Wednesday, Daniel Lurie called for new statewide standards governing how autonomous vehicles respond during major disruptions, saying that stricter measures will strengthen the AV industry."California's challenge now is not just whether autonomous vehicles can operate safely under normal conditions, but also whether they can perform reliably during extraordinary ones," Lurie wrote."Prove it before you deploy it," Lurie added, "Before deploying autonomous vehicles, autonomous vehicle operators must demonstrate major event operational readiness through testing and exercises."Lurie's letter described two incidents that he says made new regulations necessary. The mayor said that on the evening of the Fourth of July, heavy traffic around San Francisco's waterfront left numerous Waymo vehicles immobilized, blocking travel lanes and worsening a traffic jam that trapped municipal shuttles and thousands of people trying to leave the city's fireworks celebration.Lurie also pointed to a citywide power outage in December 2025 that similarly stranded Waymo's robotaxis and paralyzed public transportation."As autonomous vehicles comprise a larger share of the vehicles on our streets, they become part of the transportation system itself," Lurie wrote. "That carries responsibilities beyond serving individual passengers. It means supporting the critical functions that define life in a major city."
