California's governor just spared robotrucks, but gave cops more power over AVs

Just days after a Waymo robotaxi got stuck making a U-turn and blocked Vice President Kamala Harris' motorcade in San Francisco, California Governor Gavin Newsom settled the fate of three critical autonomous vehicle bills.

He signed one into law and vetoed the other two, handing a major win to the self-driving industry while giving police a new tool to manage rogue robotaxis.

Newsom shields robotrucks and cuts red tape

For the second time in two years, Newsom vetoed AB 2286, a bill backed by labor unions that would have banned heavy-duty autonomous trucks without a human safety driver.

AV operators had warned that requiring a human behind the wheel would completely erase the economic point of autonomous freight.

Newsom defended his veto by noting that California is already preparing draft rules for heavy-duty AVs, including a 50 mph speed limit and bans on hazardous cargo.

He pushed back against the idea that innovation and labor protection are a zero-sum game, calling it a false binary.

Newsom also vetoed AB 3061, which would have forced AV makers to submit detailed quarterly reports on vehicle miles, traffic crashes, disengagements, and immobilization incidents.

While Newsom claimed to support the intent, he vetoed it because the timeline imposed on the Department of Motor Vehicles was completely infeasible.

A hotline for cops and fines without cash

The only bill Newsom actually signed was AB 1777, aimed directly at the chaotic interactions between autonomous vehicles and first responders.

Under the new law, self-driving companies must establish a dedicated hotline for law enforcement when a vehicle disrupts a crime scene or emergency situation.

Police can now also issue traffic citations to non-compliant driverless vehicles.

According to Assemblymember Phil Ting, who sponsored the bill, these tickets do not carry monetary penalties, but companies must report them to the DMV within 72 hours.

If an operator racks up enough citations, the state can revoke its permit entirely.

Why it matters

For everyday residents and first responders, this is a much-needed sanity check.

Emergency crews in cities like San Francisco have repeatedly faced robotaxis freezing in intersections or blocking fire trucks with zero human accountability on scene.

For the autonomous trucking industry, Newsom's veto dodged an existential threat.

Requiring human operators in autonomous big rigs would have effectively killed the unit economics of self-driving freight before it could even scale.

We think Newsom played smart politics here, finding a calculated middle ground between Silicon Valley and public safety.

By killing the truck ban and sparing companies from suffocating DMV reporting deadlines, he keeps California attractive for high-stakes tech investment.

Signing AB 1777 gives him cover to show voters that emergency scenes will not be left at the mercy of confused software.

However, it seems the enforcement mechanism still has a glaring loophole.

Without financial penalties, the real teeth depend entirely on how aggressively the DMV decides to tally citations and revoke permits, which remains a massive question mark.