California law adds fines and local support duties for robotaxis blocking first responders

New accountability rules for robotaxi operators

California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed Senate Bill 1246, a law that imposes fresh obligations, and the threat of financial penalties, on autonomous vehicle companies such as Tesla, Waymo and Zoox when their robotaxis malfunction or get in the way of emergency crews.

According to TechCrunch, operators can be fined if one of their vehicles obstructs police or firefighters for more than 30 minutes during an emergency. Companies must also notify cities, towns and other local jurisdictions about the location and status of their vehicles during system-wide failures, and they must provide "local incident technicians" who can help clear accidents and blockages on the ground.

The law does not take effect until July 2028. The California Department of Motor Vehicles, which regulates autonomous vehicles in the state, will fill in parts of the framework, including required response times.

Remote drivers must be US-based

One of the more specific provisions concerns remote operations. AV developers may only employ remote drivers who are based in the United States, and those drivers must hold a US driver's license.

TechCrunch notes that "remote operations" has been interpreted broadly across the industry and that little is publicly known about the methods companies actually use. The law's "remote drivers" term is narrower: it refers to a person who directly operates or drives the vehicle from afar. Tesla is the only company that has publicly said it employs such operators for its robotaxis.

Waymo, by contrast, describes its approach as remote assistance, where the self-driving system stays in control while human staff offer guidance or send software commands. Its assistance workforce is global, including employees in the Philippines, with command centers in Arizona and Michigan. Zoox says its remote operations teams are already located in the United States. How regulators draw the line between direct teleoperation and assistance may determine how much the new staffing rule bites in practice.

Why the law exists

The legislation follows a run of high-profile incidents in California in which robotaxis broke down and snarled traffic, entered crime scenes, or obstructed emergency responders. TechCrunch reports that most of those incidents involved Waymo, the largest robotaxi operator in the US, with roughly 4,000 vehicles nationwide and about 1,200 in the San Francisco Bay Area.

A TechCrunch investigation earlier this year documented cases where first responders ended up driving Waymo vehicles that had run into trouble. Those episodes drew calls for stricter rules from state and federal lawmakers, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sent a letter to AV developers demanding "solutions" to the problem.

State Senator Dave Cortese, who introduced the bill, framed the measure as a balance between technological progress and public protection. "California has embraced autonomous vehicles, but we cannot embrace innovation at the expense of public safety," he said, adding that when an autonomous vehicle crashes, breaks down or blocks a roadway during an emergency, "there must be clear accountability."

Operators say they will comply

Waymo and Zoox have both indicated they will follow the new rules, TechCrunch reports. A Waymo spokesperson said the company was grateful for amendments to the bill "which ensure autonomous vehicle operators can still feasibly serve Californians," and pointed to its commitment to "making roads safer in California" and "continually improving our service."

Why it matters

This is one of the most concrete attempts yet in the US to attach real costs to a failure mode that has so far mostly been absorbed by cities and emergency crews: autonomous vehicles that stall, wander into restricted areas, or freeze in ways that only humans on the scene can resolve. By setting a 30-minute threshold for fines and requiring physical, local support staff, California is pushing operators to build their own response capability instead of leaning on public agencies as a fallback.

The remote driver provision also touches a sensitive spot for the industry: how much human labor actually sits behind "autonomous" services, and where that labor is located. With enforcement not starting until July 2028, companies have a long runway to adapt, but the DMV's forthcoming guidelines on response times and other details will decide how strict the regime feels in everyday operation.