California's robotaxi law requires operators to send technicians to stuck cars from July 2028

A TechCrunch investigation earlier this year found several incidents where the person who moved a stuck Waymo was a first responder, driving it by hand ^[1]. Waymo describes its own approach to trouble as remote assistance. The self-driving system stays in control, and a staff member sends guidance or software commands if needed ^[8]. SB 1246, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed, adds a company employee standing at the car ^[17][2].

The dispatch triggers are broad: a crash, a stuck car, a blocked road or emergency access route, or any request from first responders ^[2]. Neither report puts a cost on staffing for them. The scale is easier to see. Waymo has about 4,000 cars in its US commercial fleet and about 1,200 in the Bay Area, so roughly 30 percent sit in one region ^[10][2]. It sells driverless rides in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego, and each of those metros now needs technicians within reach of any street its cars use ^[11][2].

Fines are counted per vehicle. Gizmodo reports penalties of up to $5,000 for violations, and up to $10,000 per vehicle when a car interferes with an emergency operation for more than 30 minutes after officials request a technician ^[4]. Cortese's office cited Waymo cars blocking San Francisco streets during Fourth of July celebrations, and a December power outage that stalled about 1,500 Waymo vehicles ^[12]. Take the worst case, where every car in an outage that size blocked an emergency scene past the 30-minute mark. The per-vehicle cap alone would total $15 million ^[1].

The remote-driver rule covers fewer people than it sounds. In the law, a remote driver is a person who directly drives the car from afar ^[6]. Tesla is the only company that has said publicly it has operators who can take direct control of its robotaxis ^[7]. Waymo's remote assistance staff work in a global network that includes the Philippines, with command centers in Arizona and Michigan ^[18]. Going by the definition as TechCrunch describes it, assistance where the software keeps control falls outside the rule ^[6][8]. Zoox says its remote operations teams are based in the US ^[9].

"California has embraced autonomous vehicles, but we cannot embrace innovation at the expense of public safety," said state Sen. Dave Cortese, who introduced the bill ^[13]. NHTSA had already identified what it called a "clear pattern" of driverless vehicles interfering with first responders ^[14]. Administrator Jonathan Morrison wrote in a letter to AV companies that "Emergency scenes are not rare or extreme 'edge cases.'" ^[19] Waymo focused on the final text. "We are grateful for the amendments made to the bill, which ensure autonomous vehicle operators can still feasibly serve Californians," a Waymo spokesperson said ^[15].

For the person running field operations, two numbers set the plan. One is the most cars that can stall at once in one jurisdiction. The other is the response window the DMV writes ^[5]. If breakdowns come one at a time and the window is loose, I'd expect on-call staff to cover it. A tight window turns that into scheduled shifts near the busiest parts of each service area. Mass stalls under a loose window put more weight on the outage notice to the city ^[3] and on a surge roster. When mass stalls meet a tight window, the size of the technician roster limits how many cars it makes sense to run in that city. In every case, the team will be judged on minutes from an official's request to a cleared road, because the $10,000 clock starts at the request ^[4].