{"id":140046,"date":"2026-02-20T15:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T15:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/140046\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T15:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T15:17:11","slug":"new-york-governor-hochul-pulls-robotaxi-expansion-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/140046\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Governor Hochul Pulls Robotaxi Expansion Proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"reuters\">New York Governor Kathy Hochul has pulled her proposal to allow commercial robotaxi services in smaller cities outside New York, a spokesperson for the governor said on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBased on conversations with stakeholders, including in the legislature, it was clear that the support was not there to advance this proposal,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>The move comes as a setback to autonomous vehicle company Alphabet\u2019s Waymo, which received its first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/east\/2025\/08\/25\/836772.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">permit to begin<\/a> testing autonomous vehicles in New York City last year, albeit with a trained specialist behind the wheel.<\/p>\n<p>The unit, which offers paid driverless rides to the public in cities in the San Francisco Bay Area, along with parts of Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, Atlanta and other cities, was hoping to grow its already sizable foothold in the robotaxi market and tap into a large pool of new users.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile we are disappointed by the Governor\u2019s decision, we\u2019re committed to bringing our service to New York and will work with the State Legislature to advance this issue,\u201d a Waymo spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hear from thousands of New Yorkers who have experienced Waymo in other cities and want access to it at home,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n<p>Self-driving operations already face a difficult path to commercialization, as the technology has been under heavy scrutiny over safety concerns after accidents involving autonomous vehicles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAutonomous vehicles are already driving down accident rates and improving pedestrian safety in Arizona, California, and Texas. It\u2019s disappointing that Governor Hochul is withdrawing her proposal, because New Yorkers deserve the same proven protections,\u201d Chamber of Progress CEO Adam Kovacevich said.<\/p>\n<p>(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)<\/p>\n<p>Photo: Google\u2019s Alphabet Waymo driverless self driving taxi cab rushing through city traffic, crossing illuminated street intersection at dusk in West Hollywood, California. March 14, 2025\/ Adobe stock photo.<\/p>\n<p>Editor\u2019s Note: The Chamber of Progress advocates for policies that support technology. It is funded by major technology firms including Amazon, Uber, Meta, Google, Apple, and others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagtag\">\n            Topics<br \/>\n            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/location\/new-york\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\" style=\"color: #fff; padding: 2px 8px; text-decoration: none; margin: 0 2px;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York<\/a>\n                    <\/p>\n<p>            The most important insurance news,in your inbox every business day.<\/p>\n<p>Get the insurance industry&#8217;s trusted newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Governor Kathy Hochul has pulled her proposal to allow commercial robotaxi services in smaller cities outside&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59172,9,11,10,5488,5376],"class_list":["post-140046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-autonomous-vechicles","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-robotaxis","tag-waymo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}