WASHINGTON, D.C. — Driverless taxis will not be picking up paying riders in Washington, D.C., any time soon after a D.C. Council committee deadlocked on a bill that would have opened the door to them.
The Committee on Transportation and the Environment split 3-3 during a markup session. The measure, formally the Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Authorization Amendment Act, was a 2026 bill. Because a tie does not carry, the measure cannot move to the full Council and is effectively finished for this year.
Councilmember Charles Allen, who chairs the committee, had revised the bill to address safety, worker protections and congestion and argued it was ready to go forward. Other members, among them incoming Mayor Janeese Lewis George, said the timing was wrong. Cab drivers, union members and faith leaders rallied against the proposal in October, raising labor and safety objections.
The rejected version was written to move slowly. Paid service would not have begun until 2028, early fleets would have been limited to 200 vehicles, crash and malfunction liability would have been spelled out, and operators would have had to brief first responders on how to deal with their cars after a wreck.
Waymo, which has run test vehicles on District streets for years and wants approval to carry passengers, said afterward it is still willing to work with the Council. NetChoice, a technology trade group that backed the bill, called on members to bring autonomous vehicle legislation back early in the next Council period.
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