By Contributor,Nicole Kobie
Copyright forbes
San Bruno Police Department pulled over a Waymo car for an illegal u-turn, but couldn’t give it a ticket under existing laws.
San Bruno Police Department
What happens when a Waymo driverless car breaks the law? Not even Californian cops are sure.
Police in San Bruno, California pulled over a Waymo for a dodgy u-turn — but admitted they couldn’t issue a fine, as there was no driver.
San Bruno sits between San Francisco — a city that’s long acted as a lab for the Google-owned driverless car company — and Silicon Valley, where Google and other tech giants make their homes.
“During a grant-funded DUI enforcement operation, our officers observed something unusual: an autonomous vehicle made an illegal U-turn right in front of them at a light,” the San Bruno Police Department said in a social media post, adding it was the first time the two officers involved had dealt with a driverless car.
Waymo vs traffic cops: “no driver, no hands, no clue”
In a subsequent comment on the post, the police department said that when they attempted to pull it over, the car automatically did so.
The department added: “That’s right… no driver, no hands, no clue.” That was followed by a robot emoji and a no-entry sign emoji; the post was accompanied by Rihanna’s “Shut Up and Drive.”
In a statement sent to The Register, a Waymo spokesperson said: “Waymo’s autonomous driving system, the Waymo Driver, is designed to respect the rules of the road. We are looking into this situation and are committed to improving road safety through our ongoing learnings and experience.”
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No fine for Waymo — this time
The statement added that the vehicle was stopped and Waymo contacted to advise the company of the “glitch”, but Waymo faces no fine because California laws haven’t yet caught up with the technology — despite its cars first being pulled over in the state a decade ago.
“Since there was no human driver, a ticket couldn’t be issued (our citation books don’t have a box for ‘robot’),” the police post said. “Hopefully the reprogramming will keep it from making any more illegal moves.”
The police added that a system was being developed to bill driverless companies for such fines. “For those who believe that we are being leniant [sic], there is legislation in the works that will allow officers to issue the company notices.”
Time to fine Waymo driverless cars
That likely references a bill passed last year that will mean driverless companies finally face enforcement in California for road violations after years of being able to avoid traffic tickets. (Texas and Arizona already allow driverless companies to receive citations for breaking traffic laws.)
That legislation comes into force in California next summer, and would start to close a loophole that currently allows driverless cars to avoid fines for moving violations, as police must issue traffic tickets to the driver. Police couldn’t hand a ticket to a car, but were told to collect pertinent details in an incident report.
Under the new system, driverless cars still won’t receive tickets, but rather be issued a “notice of noncompliance” via the Department of Motor Vehicles. Exactly what that notice entails must be sorted out before the law comes into play in July 2026.
Rear view of Waymo autonomous vehicle stopped at traffic signal with Muni clean air bus in background on 4th Street, San Francisco, California, May 27, 2025. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
Gado via Getty Images
That loophole and the new bill to close it only applies to moving violations. Plenty of parking fines have been doled out to driverless vehicles, as have other road violations such as parking in a bus zone or obstructing traffic. In one story from 2023, over a year-long period, Cruise racked up about 40 such violations in San Francisco, while Waymo received about 90.
Of course, it’s hardly the first time a driverless car has broken road laws. In 2022, police in San Francisco approached a Cruise vehicle after spotting the car driving without headlights; after they walk up and spot the lack of driver, the car suddenly drives off, which the company pinned on the robotaxi seeking a safer position. Last year, a Waymo robotaxi was pulled over in Phoenix after swerving into an oncoming lane, with his body camera capturing a surprised “hello!” upon realising there was no driver.
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