Last year, Waymo paid the city of San Francisco $65,065 in fines. The autonomous taxi company‘s fleet of over 300 cars accumulated a staggering 589 parking tickets, as reported by The Washington Post.
The violations ranged from ignoring street cleaning restrictions and parking in prohibited areas like loading zones to blocking traffic. Waymo, however, defended itself, claiming that many of the citations were issued while the cars were picking up or dropping off passengers and emphasized that the vehicles were taking the safest route to do so.
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Waymo Continues to Rack Up Parking Tickets
To put Waymo’s violations into perspective, the company’s $65,000+ in fines is just a small fraction of the $119 million in parking fines San Francisco collected last year from around 1.2 million tickets. It’s also important to note a recent expansion, which may help explain the large number of parking tickets Waymo has accumulated.
Waymo has recently expanded its service in San Francisco and Los Angeles to take any and all passengers, moving away from its previous limited offerings. While the company received tickets in Los Angeles, the number was much lower—75 citations, totaling around $543 in unpaid fines as of the latest report. However, Waymo is current on other fines, and a spokesperson confirmed that the company plans to pay all outstanding fines.
Experts Express Concerns About Parked Waymo Taxis
Safety experts remain concerned about parking violations. Michael Brooks, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, told The Washington Post that a parked Waymo taxi can disrupt traffic flow, forcing other drivers to maneuver around it and increasing the risk of accidents.
There’s also the danger that another driver could accidentally collide with an illegally parked vehicle. While Waymo’s taxis can detect when they block traffic and identify parking spaces, the company is still working on improving its “capability to avoid parking citations.”
Waymo vehicles are prone to the same types of violations as those committed by human drivers. However, it’s only recently that California has begun establishing the legal framework for issuing moving violations, such as for speeding. Starting in July of next year, law enforcement will have the authority to issue “notices of autonomous vehicle noncompliance” to the company when one of its autonomous vehicles breaks a traffic law.
How-To Geek’s Take
Enforcing traffic violations without a driver to cite presents a tricky legal issue. Is it fair to fine Waymo, a multi-billion-dollar company, the same way an individual would be fined for illegally parking in a loading zone?
Alternatively, should states adopt a framework like some Nordic countries, where fines are based on a person’s income? After all, Waymo is responsible for how its cars behave on the road, including when they obstruct traffic, fail to yield, or commit other violations.
When a human driver commits a moving violation, points are deducted from their license as part of the penalty, especially in cases of repeated offenses. The question remains: how should Waymo be penalized for the same behavior?
For now, notices of autonomous vehicle noncompliance are a starting point. However, Waymo and other AV companies are still allowed to operate while states determine how best to regulate them.
Source: The Washington Post
