SAN FRANCISCO—Due to recent events of a beloved Mission District bodega cat’s death, caused by a Waymo accident on Monday, October 27, there has been an outpouring of support for more regulations regarding robotaxis. Mike Zeidan, the owner of KitKat does not want anyone else to die due to driverless vehicles. Waymo is planning on donating to an animal rights’ group in honor of KitKat’s memory.
Democratic San Francisco District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder proposed a new robotaxi regulation that gives California counties the right to decide whether to allow autonomous vehicles. Her plan is to call on California legislature to grant local voters the authority, but only state agencies can currently regulate robotaxis. Her plan is introducing a resolution to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, urging state lawmakers to take action, not creating a city ordinance herself.
Even if the regulation is safe for others, still others, who include Ahmed Banafa, worry about how it would affect the local economy.
According to Banafa, who is a tech expert and a professor at San Jose State University, he thinks it will slow down progress, increase costs and decrease deployment. If self-driving companies are regulated in California, Texas and Arizona are soon welcomed to these companies.
He says that Fielder’s proposal have logistical problems because the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) or California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) does not standardized her plan since they are already regulating robotaxis.
