Who Gets a Ticket When a Waymo Does Wrong and Nobody Is in the Robotaxi to Cite?
A Waymo robotaxi pulled an illegal maneuver in front of police, but with no one behind the wheel, there’s no one to take the blame—at least for now.
Justin BannerWriterMotorTrend StaffPhotographerManufacturerPhotographerOct 02, 2025
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With more robotaxis taking to the roads, driverless cars are becoming more of a common sight. But when something like a Waymo robotaxi makes an illegal U-turn, who gets the ticket if there isn’t a human behind the wheel? For the time being, the San Bruno (California) Police Department gives us the answer.
The illegal U-turn occurred in the last few days of September, according to the Associated Press, and when the San Bruno officers working a DUI enforcement operation saw it happen, they did their duty to pull over the car. Of course, being a robotaxi, there wasn’t anyone behind the wheel, and the Waymo Jaguar had no occupants inside to even speak to. In a Facebook post by the San Bruno police, it admits the scenario “was a first” for their officers, but at least the car did pull over. Of course, there was no one for those officers to cite for the transgression. In its FB post, the police representative stated, “Since there was no human driver, a ticket couldn’t be issued (our citation books don’t have a box for ‘robot’).” That outcome might irritate humans who have received tickets for similar offenses, but that’s the way it is—at least for now.
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However, the department also notes there is legislation coming to California that aims to mostly “correct” this situation by reporting the operating company (be it Waymo, Tesla, or any other autonomous taxi service) to the California DMV. According to the L.A. Times, there will be a new law in effect on July 1, 2026, to allow officers to report these traffic violations. What this really means remains unclear, as the California DMV is working on specifics and penalties. This is a weaker version of the original bill, which would have allowed self-driving cars to be ticketed and not just reported to the DMV. For humans who are opposed to robotaxi services, this “watered down” version of the law is still “backward,” as the leader of the Western Region of the Teamsters union put it. We reached out to Waymo to get answers on how one of its robotaxis could “glitch” this bad and how widespread the error is, but it hasn’t yet commented.
Justin Banner
Having experience in many forms of the automotive industry, Justin Banner has done more than just write about cars. For more than 15 years, he’s had experience working as an automotive service technician—including a stint as a Virginia State Inspector—service advisor, parts sales, and aftermarket parts technical advisor (a fancy way of saying he helped you on the phone when you had trouble fitting your brakes over your aftermarket wheels and the like). Prior
to his tenure as a full-time editor, Justin worked as a freelance writer and photographer for various publications and as an automotive content creator on YouTube. He’s also covered multiple forms of motorsports ranging from Formula Drift, drag racing, and time attack, to NASCAR, short course off-roading, and open desert racing. He’s best known for breaking down complex technical concepts so a layperson can more easily understand why technologies, repairs, and parts should matter to them. At MotorTrend, Justin is part of the news team covering breaking news and topics while also working as a judge for MotorTrend Of the Year events and other major comparison tests.