Police officers in California were left puzzled after pulling over a self-driving Waymo car after it performed an illegal U-turn.
DUI enforcement officers in San Bruno, some 15 miles south of San Francisco, made the stop on Saturday night after the autonomous vehicle performed the turn right in front of them at a light.
“Since there was no human driver, a ticket couldn’t be issued (our citation books don’t have a box for “robot”),” the department wrote in an online post.
“That’s right… no driver, no hands, no clue.”
It added that, rather than the result of too much alcohol, the illegal maneuver was down to a “glitch” with the Waymo operating system.
“Hopefully the reprogramming will keep it from making any more illegal moves,” the post added.
The department clarified that notifying the company of the issue did not mean that officers were being “lenient” and that California legislation was “in the works” to allow them to issue official notices.
Last September California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that allows officers to issue “notices of noncompliance” to manufacturers if the self-driving cars are found to have violated any traffic laws.
The vehicles must also contain “a dedicated emergency response telephone line that is available for emergency response officials,” and a two-way communication device that allows law enforcement to speak to a “human operator.”
The law is set to go into effect on July 1 2026.
The bill was introduced by California assemblyman Phil Ting following several incidents in San Francisco, which included autonomous vehicles blocking traffic, entering active crime scenes and even dragging a pedestrian along the road.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has also launched its own investigation into Waymo after receiving almost two dozen reports of the autonomous vehicles potentially violating traffic laws.
“Whether it’s drivers, passengers, or even driverless cars, we’ll continue to do our part to keep San Bruno’s streets safe,” the San Bruno police department said.
Waymo self-driving cars were first launched by Google’s X research lab in 2009, and work via the use of external cameras and sensors.
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