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Austin police officers work to get a Waymo robotaxi moving after it temporarily stopped near a rollover crash at West 15th and San Antonio streets in Austin on Tuesday, May 26, 2026. Officers spoke through the vehicle\u2019s open window with a remote Waymo employee before the autonomous vehicle continued through the intersection.<\/p>\n
Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Federal safety regulators are demanding answers from Waymo, Tesla, Zoox and other autonomous-vehicle developers<\/a> after documenting a pattern of driverless vehicles interfering with first responders.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration\u00a0ordered the companies to explain by the end of July<\/a> how they will keep their vehicles from entering emergency scenes, blocking responders or failing to recognize flashing lights and other hazards.\u00a0The incidents have renewed questions about whether robotaxis are safe enough to operate on public streets and prompted calls from some experts to slow their expansion.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Austin has seen such incidents firsthand. In one high-profile case, first responders heading to a March 1\u00a0mass shooting downtown<\/a> faced an unexpected obstacle: self-driving robotaxis.\u00a0<\/p>\n The shooting left three people dead and the gunman was fatally shot by police. Fifteen others were injured.<\/p>\n A screengrab from a TikTok video showing a Waymo robotaxi stuck crosswise after attempting a U-turn in the early morning hours of March 1. The vehicle blocked an ambulance heading to the scene of a mass shooting on West Sixth Street, stalling a first responder for nearly a minute until a police officer was able to enter the vehicle and drive it out of the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n Courtesy of Matthew Turnage<\/p>\n As first responders converged on the area, as many as\u00a0five autonomous vehicles froze near the scene<\/a>. One sat perpendicular across the roadway for nearly a minute<\/a> before a police officer was able to climb into the front seat and move it.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Sgt. Patrick Chasse of Hays County Constable\u2019s Office, Precinct 2, directs a Waymo robotaxi to stop on East Fourth Street as he manages traffic exiting the Frost Bank Tower parking garage in downtown Austin on March 25. A string of potentially dangerous incidents has caused backlash from City Hall where councilors and city staff discussed autonomous vehicle safety on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman Deputy Gavin McGee of the Travis County Constable\u2019s Office, Precinct 5, directs a Waymo autonomous vehicle to stop on Brazos Street as he manages traffic exiting the Frost Bank Tower parking garage in Austin on Wednesday, March 25, 2026.<\/p>\n Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman A Zoox robotaxi passes Deputy Gavin McGee of the Travis County Constable\u2019s Office, Precinct 5, as he manages traffic exiting the Frost Bank Tower parking garage in Austin on Wednesday, March 25, 2026.<\/p>\n Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman A Waymo obotaxi navigates around a rollover crash at West 15th and San Antonio streets in Austin, Tuesday, May 26, 2026.<\/p>\n Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman Four Waymo autonomous vehicles drive along West 15th Street in Austin on May 26. Waymo plans to retire some of its Jaguar I-Pace vehicles later this year and plans to plug the vehicles’ batteries back into the Texas grid.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman An Austin police officer directs traffic including a Waymo robotaxi near a rollover crash at West 15th and San Antonio streets in Austin on Tuesday, May 26, 2026.<\/p>\n Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman Texas Department of Public Safety troopers watch a Waymo robotaxi pass through the intersection near a rollover crash at West 15th and San Antonio streets in Austin on Tuesday, May 26, 2026.<\/p>\n Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman An Austin police officer directs traffic as a Waymo robotaxi temporarily stops near a rollover crash at West 15th and San Antonio streets in Austin on Tuesday, May 26, 2026. Officers spoke through the vehicle\u00b4s open window with a remote Waymo employee before the autonomous vehicle continued through the intersection.<\/p>\n Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman Austin police officers speak through the open window of a Waymo robotaxi that temporarily stopped near a rollover crash at West 15th and San Antonio streets in Austin on Tuesday, May 26, 2026. Officers spoke with a remote Waymo employee before the autonomous vehicle continued through the intersection.<\/p>\n Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n Austin-Travis County EMS officials have said the mishap did not affect patient outcomes.<\/p>\n But robotaxis either blocked traffic or ignored the direction of Austin police in 25% of reported incidents from July 2023 to June 2026, according to the city of Austin\u2019s autonomous vehicle database. Data collected by the city<\/a> since 2023 shows interference with law enforcement and other traffic is among the top safety concerns surrounding autonomous vehicles in the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n Experts say the incidents have helped highlight the limited power Texas cities have to regulate the technology on their own streets.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIf Waymo or another company\u2019s autonomous driving system can\u2019t handle flashing lights and sirens in a crisis, it isn\u2019t ready for public roads,\u201d said Cooper Lohr, a senior policy analyst for transportation and safety at Consumer Reports. \u201cIt should be removed from service until the company proves it will handle the situation appropriately.\u201d<\/p>\n History of concerns<\/p>\n Austin has become a hotbed for\u00a0robotaxis since the world\u2019s first fully autonomous ride<\/a> was taken in the city in 2015. Waymo, the industry leader in autonomous vehicles, drove a legally blind man through the city without incident.<\/p>\n Now the company, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet Inc., is under pressure to control its vehicles in emergency situations, even as other\u00a0robotaxi makers, including Tesla Inc.,\u00a0Zoox and Avride, join Waymo in expanding testing and service across Texas\u2019 capital city.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The downtown shooting was one of the most high-profile incidents in recent months but far from the only one.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sgt. Patrick Chasse of the Hays County Constable\u2019s Office, Precinct 2, directs a Zoox robotaxi to go on East 4th Street as he manages traffic exiting the Frost Bank Tower parking garage in Austin on Wednesday, March 25, 2026.<\/p>\n Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n In a July 2023 incident, a vehicle in General Motors\u2019 project known as Cruise nearly collided with an ambulance twice near West Avenue, city\u00a0data shows. GM abandoned its work on Cruise a few months later after one of its vehicles struck and dragged a pedestrian in San Francisco.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The incident sparked concern in the industry but innovation hasn\u2019t slowed and incidents continue to mount.\u00a0<\/p>\n In November 2025, a Waymo vehicle inched toward officers working on a DWI investigation and attempted to enter a crash scene. First responders have also reported robotaxis interrupting funeral processions, disobeying hand signals, crossing fire hoses or driving the wrong way on major roadways.<\/p>\n Waymo, which operates the largest fleet of robotaxis in Austin, accounts for 57 of the 74 reported incidents involving blocked traffic or ignored\u00a0directions from police officers.<\/p>\n A Waymo autonomous vehicle stops on East Fourth Street to allow an Austin Fire Department truck to respond to an emergency in Austin on March 25. Waymo officials will not attend a meeting with City of Austin officials this week to discuss how the driverless robotaxis interact with first responders.<\/p>\n Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n In other cases, officers reported long wait times after requesting that Waymo establish a geofence, or a virtual perimeter prohibiting the robotaxis from entering certain areas during an emergency. That was a central concern for first responders after the March 1 downtown\u00a0shooting, during which they said Waymo failed to abide by a requested 1,000-square-foot perimeter.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like whatever we say makes no difference at this point,\u201d one Austin police officer wrote in a report to the city. \u201cWhat do we need to do to make sure this does not happen again and for Waymo to understand how serious this is?\u201d<\/p>\n Waymo spokesperson Katherina Barna said safety is central to the company\u2019s operations<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThat means taking responsibility and always improving based on what we learn,\u201d Barna said. \u201cWe will keep working with Austin\u2019s leadership and first responder community, because ongoing collaboration is how we build the trust this city deserves and make Austin\u2019s streets safer.\u201d<\/p>\n The company has also said that its autonomous technology significantly reduces crashes<\/a> compared to what might be expected from a human driver in the same conditions.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Attorney Brett Schreiber, who is representing first responders hit by a Tesla operating on Autopilot near Houston in 2021, shared doubt that even Tesla\u2019s newest technology, which uses cameras and artificial intelligence, can decipher the flashing lights of an emergency responder.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we see in these cases \u2014 which is just terrifying, especially if you are a first responder on the road \u2014 is that those vehicles relied on the camera-radar fusion,\u201d Schreiber said of cases concerning Tesla. \u201cAnd what we are seeing happen in every one of these (crashes) is because the camera couldn\u2019t differentiate the flashing light. It either saw it as totally over-saturated or totally dark, and it couldn\u2019t make the assumption the human eye sees and then goes, \u2018danger.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n A production model Tesla Cybercab drives in the outbound lot at Tesla Giga Texas in Austin, Friday, April 24, 2026.<\/p>\n Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n The Austin-based automaker has a history with its assisted and automated driving systems failing to heed warnings of emergency personnel. In 2021, a federal investigation was opened after Tesla\u2019s \u201cAutopilot\u201d system was tied to a series of collisions with parked emergency vehicles.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n And in some instances, robotaxis can cause confusion among first responders. A December report details how a Tesla vehicle blocked a downtown intersection while firefighters were responding to an emergency, and the firefighters reported they could not see the markings indicating it was a robotaxi.<\/p>\n Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on Autopilot or its more advanced driver-assistance system used in robotaxi services, Full Self-Driving.<\/p>\n Heightened scrutiny<\/p>\n Federal regulators are scrutinizing several self-driving car companies operating in Austin over a number of other issues.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Tesla\u2019s Full Self-Driving technology is under investigation over collisions in low-visibility conditions, including a crash in which a pedestrian was fatally struck. The investigation covers incidents involving consumer vehicles, but Tesla notably uses Full Self-Driving technology in its robotaxi service.<\/p>\n Tesla\u2019s technology relies mainly on cameras, instead of\u00a0additional technology such as lidar and radar sensors<\/a> that other companies, including Waymo, Zoox and Avride, rely on. But even with overlapping sensors, other companies are facing investigations over safety concerns.<\/p>\n The National Transportation Safety Board and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are investigating Waymo after vehicles failed to stop for school buses<\/a> with extended stop arms on more than 25 occasions since August. In at least one instance,\u00a0a remote human operator<\/a> told the car to pass the bus.\u00a0<\/p>\n A Waymo autonomous car goes through standing water on Metro Center Drive after a brief, intense rainstorm that included hail in Austin on Thursday, April 30, 2026.<\/p>\n Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n The company later issued a \u00a0nationwide recall after one of its vehicles was swept away in San Antonio floodwaters.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Avride is being probed after 16 crashes in Dallas and Austin<\/a> in which it failed to detect other vehicles or objects. The Austin-based company is testing its autonomous vehicles in the city but has launched public services in Dallas on the Uber app.<\/p>\n In all, Avride has reported 24 crashes in Austin since June 2025<\/a>. Tesla\u2019s count stands at 20, and Zoox has had two crashes. Waymo, with it’s much larger fleet, has seen 113 crashes in the same period.<\/p>\n Amazon-owned Zoox, which recently began testing\u00a0its purpose-built robotaxis in Austin<\/a>, said it has engaged with first responders and city officials for training, especially because its vehicles do not have a steering wheel or foot pedals. The company plans to begin offering rides to a limited group by the end of the year.<\/p>\n A Zoox robotaxi traveling north on Lavaca Street blocks westbound traffic on West Cesar Chavez Street as traffic backs up in downtown Austin on Friday, May 15, 2026.<\/p>\n Jay Janner \/ Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n The pitch for self-driving vehicles is to make roads safer, Center for Auto Safety executive director Michael Brooks told the Statesman. But the technology has not yet progressed that point, he said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThese companies want growth to happen quickly, and they want to scale their operations very, very quickly in order to appeal to shareholders and investors,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cBut frankly, it\u2019s dangerous. They want to scale as rapidly as possible. But we need a slower and more safety-focused approach.\u201d<\/p>\n Amid a push for rapid expansion, Austin officials say the companies have been reluctant to engage publicly with local leaders \u2014 and under Texas law, they are not required to.<\/p>\n Though Waymo officials met privately with city staff, seats reserved for the company sat empty<\/a> during an April special City Council committee meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I\u2019m a little bit flustered about is that they\u2019re just not committing to having a public conversation, which I think that\u2019s what creates transparency and buy-in and all that stuff,\u201d said Council Member Zo Qadri, whose district includes Buford\u2019s.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Autonomous vehicles have been regulated at the state level since a 2017 law stripped cities of authority over them. New rules taking effect this month will give the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles the power to suspend permits for autonomous vehicle companies.<\/p>\n \u201cStates like Texas and Florida have a much more reactive framework in place,\u201d Lohr said. \u201cWe really only see action taken when something goes terribly wrong, because there aren\u2019t tools in place to notice certain trends happening.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Two-way communication\u2019<\/p>\n In emergency situations, first responders who come across a Waymo can dial a line dedicated to them at all hours, use the intercom inside the vehicle or scan a QR code by each mirror.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Takahiro and Hitomi Miyata look at a Tesla Cybercab on display at a pop-up event at Fareground Austin in downtown Austin during the South by Southwest Conference and Festivals on Friday, March 13, 2026. The free event allows the public to get an up-close look at the Cybercab and Tesla\u2019s Optimus robot and continues through 10 p.m. Saturday, March 14.<\/p>\n Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n But even with all those options, emergency responders have still been blocked at times.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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