SF police stumped after trying to ticket driverless car for illegal U-turn (www.theguardian.com)

During a DUI checkpoint in San Bruno, California, officers stopped an unoccupied Waymo vehicle after it executed an illegal U-turn — and discovered they couldn’t issue a conventional traffic citation because there was no human driver to name. The police department said it notified Waymo about the “glitch”; Waymo responded that its Waymo Driver system is designed to respect rules of the road and that it’s investigating. The exchange underscores immediate operational gaps: current citation procedures don’t accommodate autonomous agents, and first responders lack standardized tools to compel or document corrective action in real time. The incident is a useful flashpoint for broader regulatory and technical issues. California passed a bill (effective July 2026) allowing officers to issue “notices of noncompliance,” require companies to provide emergency responder hotlines, and order firms to move vehicles from active scenes within minutes — measures prompted by past AV problems such as traffic blocking, pedestrian contact, a recent recall of ~1,200 Waymo vehicles for software causing collisions with stationary barriers, and an NHTSA inquiry. Technically, it highlights the need for more robust edge‑case handling, remote intervention mechanisms, clearer logging/audit trails, and rapid operator response channels so autonomous systems and public safety procedures can interoperate reliably.