Rep. Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.) has proposed the AV Emergency Response Coordination Act, legislation that would direct federal regulators to establish minimum national safety standards for autonomous vehicle operators2. The bill follows a pattern identified by NHTSA of driverless vehicles entering active emergency scenes, blocking ambulances or firefighters, and failing to respond properly to flashing lights, flares, smoke, fire, and traffic cones4.
The legislation was unveiled Tuesday during a press conference in San Francisco, where San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie, San Francisco fire chief Dean Crispen, and Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety president Cathy Chase also spoke.
"We have seen disturbing, and frankly, an unacceptable number of incidents where autonomous vehicles inadvertently interfere with emergency responders," Mullin said.
The bill would direct NHTSA to develop minimum national emergency response standards, require AV companies to establish a 24-hour hotline giving public officials direct access to the companies, require AV companies to provide clear emergency protocols for first responders, and create a process allowing public officials to geofence AVs during emergencies or other ongoing safety hazards.
Crispen said robotaxis are picking up and dropping off passengers directly in front of fire stations and ambulance deployment facilities, obstructing emergency access. An hours-long July 4 traffic jam in San Francisco was compounded by Waymo robotaxis that had run out of power and blocked key streets. Mayor Lurie pressed state regulators to establish new rules after that gridlock incident and a December power outage that stranded dozens of Waymo vehicles.
In early July, NHTSA administrator Jonathan Morrison sent a letter to AV developers, stating the agency had identified a clear pattern of driverless AVs interfering with law enforcement and other first responders. The letter demanded that AV developers present solutions by the end of the month.
A separate incident underscores the technical challenge. On June 20, 2026, an unoccupied Zoox autonomous vehicle encountered heavy smoke at an active fire scene before traffic cones had closed the area. According to the federal recall report, the Zoox vehicle entered the scene, braked hard while trying to steer away, and stopped; a remote teleguidance operator then guided the vehicle backward. NHTSA said the software could fail to detect heavy smoke, allowing a vehicle to enter a low-visibility area and potentially impede first responders. Zoox recalled automated-driving software used in 105 vehicles and released updated software to affected public-road vehicles on July 15. Zoox reported no identified injuries and said its review found this was the only event of its kind involving its vehicles.
The core technical difficulty, as described in the reporting, is that emergency scenes are deliberately irregular — responders may close lanes, use hand signals, deploy flares, and generate smoke, all simultaneously — creating conditions that diverge sharply from the structured road environments autonomous driving software is optimized for. A driverless vehicle may handle lane markings, traffic lights, and predictable turns well, then encounter a scene changing faster than its map.
Waymo said it supports efforts to standardize how AV developers engage with first responders and that its emergency response protocols and training with first responders are a critical component of its operations around the United States. Waymo said it has long supported a federal framework to establish standards for autonomous vehicles. Hundreds of Waymo robotaxis already give rides to paying customers in San Francisco.
ANALYSIS The proposed legislation, the NHTSA letter, and the Zoox recall collectively represent a regulatory environment tightening around the AV industry's handling of emergency scenarios — a domain where the gap between structured-road performance and real-world edge cases remains operationally consequential.