California has started issuing traffic citations to driverless cars under a new set of Department of Motor Vehicles regulations that took effect July 1, closing a gap that had left autonomous vehicles effectively immune from tickets even when they ran red lights or blocked active emergency scenes.
The DMV announced the rules Tuesday, April 28, describing them as the most comprehensive autonomous vehicle framework adopted by any state to date. Under the new system, the agency will issue “Notices of AV Noncompliance” to autonomous vehicle companies whenever their cars commit moving violations, including running red lights, failing to yield to pedestrians, or entering an active emergency zone. Companies must report the details of each incident to the DMV within 72 hours, or within 24 hours for more serious cases.
For a car accident lawyer evaluating a claim involving a robotaxi, the change addresses some evidentiary gaps. Existing traffic law was written around the assumption that a human sits behind the wheel. Officers who witnessed a driverless vehicle break the law had no mechanism to document it the way they would a citation issued to a person.
When Robotaxis Were Pulled Over Without a Driver
The issue became public last September, when a San Bruno police officer pulled over a Waymo for making an illegal U-turn and found there was no driver to cite. The department notified Waymo directly so the company could correct the software error, since remote human operators, often based in the Philippines, provide navigational guidance to the vehicles when needed.
“I think it’s a great standard that’s set in place,” San Bruno Police Sgt. Scott Smithmatungol said. “If human drivers are to be held accountable or held to a standard, I think autonomous vehicle companies should be as well.”
The regulations also grew out of a December blackout in San Francisco, when Waymo vehicles stalled at intersections without functioning stoplights while awaiting remote confirmation from human operators, snarling traffic across the city.
Local emergency officials can now issue “geofencing directives” requiring autonomous vehicles to clear a designated area within two minutes so first responders can get through, and AV companies must respond to emergency calls within 30 seconds. Companies that violate those directives risk having their operating permits restricted, suspended, or revoked, and remote operators will now need to obtain their own licensing and permits before controlling a vehicle.
The rules stem from Assembly Bill 1777, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in 2024 directing the DMV to build an enforcement protocol for autonomous vehicles. The updated regulations also require AV companies to report additional safety data, including hard-braking incidents, vehicle immobilizations, and collisions, and they open the door to expanded testing of autonomous freight trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds, a category previously barred from California roads.
Phil Koopman, an autonomous vehicle safety researcher and emeritus professor at Carnegie Mellon University, said whether the citations change corporate behavior depends on how regulators use the information they generate. A several-hundred-dollar fine means little to a large technology company, he said, but a documented record of violations gives the DMV leverage to act on patterns rather than isolated incidents. Waymo said it is reviewing the final rules and appreciates the opportunity to help inform them. The Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association, which represents the industry’s interests in Sacramento, praised the broader regulatory framework as giving companies a clear path to test and deploy AV technology in the state.
For California drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians, the effect is that a driverless vehicle’s traffic violation can now be documented the same way a human driver’s would be, and that record can outlast the citation itself, since California civil liability does not depend on whether a person was steering. A driverless vehicle’s failure to yield or obey a traffic signal can still form the basis of a negligence claim against the company that owns and operates it, and a documented DMV violation can serve as supporting evidence of that failure once litigation begins.
