Can driverless cars get tickets? What happened Bay Area police pulled a Waymo (www.latimes.com)

San Bruno police recently pulled over an unmanned Waymo robotaxi after observing it make an illegal U‑turn; because no human was behind the wheel officers said they couldn’t issue a ticket and instead notified Waymo of the “glitch.” Waymo, which launched about 100 autonomous vehicles in Los Angeles late last year, says its system is designed to follow rules and is subject to ongoing regulator oversight. The company also cites internal safety data showing 79% fewer airbag‑deployment crashes and 80% fewer injury‑causing crashes compared with human drivers in the same cities. The episode highlights a growing enforcement gap as autonomous fleets expand. Under current California practice, traffic citations can only be issued to a human driver; Assembly Bill 1777, effective this July, requires police to report AV “noncompliance” to the DMV but was weakened from an earlier version that would have allowed direct ticketing. Critics including labor unions want stronger oversight and mandates (e.g., human operators for certain vehicles), while other states such as Arizona and Texas already permit citations to the registered owner. Coupled with high‑profile safety incidents involving other AV and driver‑assist systems, the San Bruno stop underscores the need for clearer liability rules, enforceable penalties, and rapid software fixes as self‑driving cars scale on public roads.