Austin Officials Scrutinize Waymo Incidents, Push for New Oversight

When Austin first responders rushed to West Sixth Street just around 2am on March 1, they were responding to a mass shooting near Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden that killed four people, including the gunman, and injured 15 others.

At 1:58am, the first 911 call came in. Within minutes, police, fire, and EMS were moving through Downtown to reach victims.

“Approximately eight minutes later … the Waymo stopped in the middle of [Nueces] street and blocked the responding ambulance,” Austin-Travis County EMS Commander Roger Patterson said during an April 29 joint meeting of the city’s Public Safety and Mobility committees. The ambulance rerouted.

Minutes later, Austin Fire had set up a corridor for ambulances between Sixth and Seventh streets, but firefighters reported four to five Waymo vehicles stacked at Sixth and Guadalupe, with ambulances backing up behind them.

“Austin fire and Austin police personnel attempted to use hand signals to direct those Waymo vehicles to continue southbound,” AFD Battalion Chief Matt Holmes said. “They tried for several minutes … the light at that intersection cycled through several times, but unfortunately, those tactics were not successful.”

The vehicles eventually moved after responders contacted Waymo remote assistance, which Council Member Paige Ellis said is a poor use of police and EMS time in an emergency.

While city officials said the initial blockage on Nueces did not affect patient care or the overall response, the incident has become a focal point for broader concerns about how autonomous vehicles (AVs) operate in Austin.

A Growing Pattern

Austin’s AV dashboard has logged 248 reported incidents since 2023, including collisions, near misses, stalled vehicles, and cases where AVs did not follow police directions. Officials note those reports are based on submissions and are not independently verified.

“I think it’s worth highlighting that this is not a one-off incident,” Council Member Zo Qadri said during the meeting.

Across departments, officials described a consistent issue: vehicles that do not reliably respond to human direction in dynamic environments.

“Since July of 2023, we noted that the AVs were struggling with human traffic control,” APD Lt. William White said. “We’re seeing that the AVs are complying more with traffic signals than they are with the officers giving the directions.”

That gap shows up in emergency scenes, road closures, and large events, where officers rely on hand signals instead of lights.

City staff said AV companies are expected to create a roughly 1,000-foot geofence around major emergency scenes to keep vehicles out of response areas, but that did not happen quickly or at the expected scale on March 1.

“We’re seeing that the AVs are complying more with traffic signals than they are with the officers giving the directions.”

APD Lt. William White

“We do know that it was significantly smaller than the 1,000-foot radius that we were expecting,” Patterson said.

Fire officials described similar issues during emergency responses. Holmes said a Waymo entered a fire scene in October 2025, backed over a hose line, and remained stuck after the line was filled with pressurized water.

“Needless to say, this is obviously compromising firefighter tactics and firefighter safety,” he said.

These incidents are part of a broader pattern. In a November 2025 letter, Austin ISD wrote that Waymo vehicles had already passed stopped buses 19 times that school year, including one case where a vehicle drove past “only moments after a student crossed in front of the vehicle, and while the student was still in the road.”

The district has issued at least 25 citations to Waymo vehicles since last August for illegally passing stopped school buses, and the National Transportation Safety Board has opened a review into related incidents.

The district said Waymo implemented software updates after concerns were raised, but the violations continued. AISD wrote that the updates were “not working as intended nor as quickly as required” and urged the company to pause operations during pickup and drop-off hours.

Miriam Schoenfield of the Texas Streets Coalition criticized Waymo’s absence from the April meeting. “It’s very disappointing to see that Waymo isn’t here today, and their absence underscores the need for policy that ensures that AV companies are held accountable,” she said.

In a statement to the Chronicle, Waymo said it has already been working with city and state officials on the March 1 incident and its broader operations.

“We answered all questions related to the event and emergency response protocols, and provided a detailed and confidential overview of the event, including lessons learned and planned future operational improvements to Waymo’s emergency response procedures and capabilities,” a Waymo spokesperson said in the statement when asked why no representative of the company attended Wednesday’s meeting. 

28 MAY 2025, Austin, TX, USA – Inside of a Waymo autonamous taxi car during a ride arouns Austin Texas Credit: Getty Images The Fight at the Capitol

State law largely prevents cities from regulating AVs directly, leaving the city reliant on coordination, reporting, and legislative advocacy. Senate Bill 2205, passed in 2017, gives the state authority over AVs and prohibits local governments from creating their own rules.

“This is an issue and a discussion that is occurring nationally,” said Carrie Rogers, the city’s government relations officer, noting dozens of bills and a patchwork of state laws.

In 2025, Senate Bill 2807 created a statewide authorization system for commercial AV operations. Companies must receive approval from the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, which can issue, investigate, suspend, or revoke those authorizations. A Senate Committee on Transportation hearing scheduled for July will examine how those rules are working, including their impact on traffic safety.

At the federal level, lawmakers are considering the SELF DRIVE Act of 2026, which would establish national safety standards and require more data reporting from AV companies. But parts of the proposal could limit what cities and states can regulate.

For now, Austin officials are focused on changes they can influence: faster geofencing during emergencies, better access to company data, and a clearer way to cite violations.

“I think the question is not if this is going to turn into a deadly situation for someone, but when,” Ellis said. “It needs to be something that we do talk about at a high level to make sure these [AVs] are operating in a safe manner.”

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