California can now ticket driverless cars for running red lights
California is closing the legal loophole that let driverless cars break traffic laws without consequences. The state's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has updated its autonomous vehicle rules to allow law enforcement to issue moving violation citations directly to the companies that operate these vehicles. Waymo alone racked up $65,000 in fines in 2024 — almost entirely parking tickets — while remaining legally immune to citations for running red lights or ignoring stop signs. That changes in mid-2026.
The accountability gap
For 15 years, US traffic law assumed a human was always behind the wheel. When the seat is empty, there was no clear legal target for a ticket. California's new rules fix that by shifting liability to the permit-holding company. If a Waymo robotaxi runs a red light, Waymo pays — per SF Standard (April 2026), the DMV now has explicit authority to cite operators for moving violations and to suspend or revoke permits for repeated offenses.
Texas and Arizona have enforced moving violations on autonomous vehicles since early 2025, according to Newsweek (May 2026). California — home to the largest concentration of robotaxi fleets — is catching up, though specific fine amounts are still being finalised by the DMV.
The 30-second rule
One of the sharpest new requirements is a mandatory 30-second emergency response window. When a first responder — a firefighter, paramedic, or police officer — contacts an AV operator, the company must respond within half a minute or face permit suspension. It's a direct response to documented incidents in San Francisco where driverless taxis blocked fire trucks and ambulances, leaving emergency crews unable to reach anyone who could move the vehicle.
Stricter standards for remote operators
The rules also tighten oversight of the humans who monitor these vehicles from afar. Remote operators must now obtain a licence and formal permit before they can take control of a driverless car — a standard equivalent to what's expected of a human driver. That raises compliance costs for companies like Waymo and Cruise as they scale their fleets across multiple US states.
New data-reporting requirements are also coming in, covering safety metrics including hard-braking events. Heavy-duty autonomous vehicles — think self-driving trucks — are now approved for testing on California roads for the first time.
What comes next
The rules take effect in July 2026. Enforcement details, including the exact fine schedule for moving violations, are still being worked out. Critics note that the gap between passing rules and actually enforcing them has historically been wide in California's AV sector. For now, the legal free ride is over in principle — whether it ends in practice depends on how aggressively the DMV and local police choose to act.