Robotaxis are expanding across the United States, and so is the political and regulatory pushback, as cities and states grapple with safety, labor, and oversight questions that have outpaced existing laws. In New York, Governor Kathy Hochul withdrew a proposal that would have allowed driverless robotaxis outside New York City after opposition from taxi drivers, unions, and state lawmakers, leaving commercial driverless service illegal in the state six months later. In Washington, DC, labor unions are fighting a bill that would legalize commercial robotaxis, with lawmakers weighing a cap of 200 vehicles and a fee of 15 cents per mile to fund Metro upgrades and aid displaced workers, following a ten-hour City Council hearing in July. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, previously a vocal supporter, is now calling for stricter robotaxi regulations after Waymo vehicles repeatedly snarled traffic during emergencies, and as of July, California police can formally cite autonomous-vehicle manufacturers for traffic violations.
Federal regulators have also increased scrutiny. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration under the Trump administration warned autonomous-vehicle companies that vehicles unable to safely interact with police, firefighters, and other first responders pose a public danger, while Congress has not passed comprehensive robotaxi legislation. Even in states that have broadly welcomed autonomous vehicles, oversight is tightening, with Texas this year enforcing new permitting requirements for commercial operators and cities in Florida complaining that state preemption laws limit their ability to address problems on their own streets.
Waymo, the market leader, operates more than 3,500 vehicles publicly in 11 US cities. Zoox, a purpose-built robotaxi without a steering wheel that resembles a toaster, began offering paid rides in Las Vegas and continues free trips through its Explorer program in San Francisco, testing in ten cities total with plans to extend to Austin and Miami later this year. Tesla, which began its Robotaxi rollout more than a year ago with a safety monitor aboard, appears to be growing its unsupervised fleet ahead of launching its purpose-built Cybercab later this month.
Despite the political attention, robotaxis remain a tiny share of the US ridehailing market. Waymo provides more than 500,000 paid rides a week, while Uber handles about 40 million trips a day, meaning robotaxis have not yet displaced many driving jobs or fundamentally changed how cities move, though their visibility far exceeds their market share when a driverless car stops in the wrong place during a blackout or interferes with an emergency response. The consequences could look very different as fleets grow from thousands to hundreds of thousands of vehicles, which is why the battles across the country are increasingly about the terms of expansion.
Shua Sanchez, national campaign director of SAVE-US, a nonprofit advocating for stricter state AV legislation, said robotaxis are popping up everywhere and that state legislatures lack experience with the technology and good laws to regulate them. SAVE-US is working with lawmakers in New Jersey and New York on a three-pronged approach: multi-stage testing and commercial-deployment permits requiring companies to demonstrate safe operation with a small fleet before adding cars, continued safety data sharing after commercial service begins, and requirements for autonomous vehicles to use multiple kinds of sensors rather than relying on cameras alone, as Tesla does, plus restrictions on marketing terms like Autopilot or Full Self-Driving for driver-assist features that still require human oversight. Sanchez said the group is not opposed to autonomous vehicles but is pro the safe development of technology, noting that AV safety is not a settled question.
Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, who has pushed for greater federal oversight, said autonomous vehicle companies make huge claims about saving lives but the regulatory structure amounts to hoping they are telling the truth. Markey has investigated AV companies’ use of remote human operators and introduced legislation requiring them to regularly report safety data, arguing communities deserve transparency and consistent oversight before letting Big Tech invade public roads. Peter Finn, Teamsters international vice president at large, called autonomous vehicles an existential threat to his members’ work, citing the enormous number of jobs potentially affected beyond rideshare drivers, including truckers, delivery drivers, and other commercial drivers, while insisting the union is not opposed to new technology in principle.
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