San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has reached out to the state regarding standards for autonomous vehicles during emergencies and major events, following incidents involving Waymo vehicles during the Fourth of July celebrations and the city’s days-long power outage in 2025. Fourth of July celebr ations in San Francisco drew big crowds. It was a rare opportunity to see fireworks launched from the Golden Gate Bridge; but afterwards, echoes of the rockets were drowned out by complaints of traffic jams when people tried to leave. In a letter to the State Secretary of Transportation, Mayor Lurie indicated that before the fireworks began, driverless Waymo vehicles struggled to navigate the extra cars and pedestrians, and by the end of the show autonomous vehicles became immobilized on the roads, blocking key streets and ultimately bringing traffic to a standstill. “That situation, or that kind of special situation, we are going to face those situations in any city, have to be taken into consideration. Companies like Waymo and the rest of the companies that are trying to deploy those kind of autonomous cars, they have to ask themselves what if, it’s not a perfect world,” Professor and Tech Expert at San Jose State Ahmed Banafa said. Banafa says the question being raised is about training and communication for all scenarios. Lurie also mentioned a major power outage in 2025, where Waymo’s became immobilized during traffic signal outages. Lurie indicated the states’ challenge is not just whether autonomous vehicles can operate safely under normal conditions but whether they can perform reliably under extraordinary ones. “I am waiting to see what they are going to do. Are they willing to take a step forward and talk to city hall and meet with the mayor or the mayors of different cities or go to the level of the state and have a regulation that is going to be unified across California?” Banafa said. Lurie says that by establishing clear statewide operational standards California can ensure sure every community has consistent expectations for how autonomous vehicle fleets perform during major events and emergency incidents. He outlined four operational capabilities, including keeping people moving, responding in real time, operational transparency and being able to prove their readiness before they deploy. “I think he did the right thing because he was very specific about the demands and how to go forward, I mean he mentioned four important points about how to deal with situation like this in the future when it comes to autonomous cars,” Banafa said. After the Fourth of July, Waymo said extreme congestion disrupted operations for several vehicles and their team is evaluating ways to strengthen their resilience in major traffic disruptions. NBC Bay Area reached out for comment on the letter and is waiting for a response. ...read more read less