The Adams administration introduced Friday it has authorised driverless-taxi agency Waymo’s utility to check autonomous automobiles in Gotham — however the robotaxis gained’t be choosing up passengers anytime quickly.
“We’re a tech-friendly administration and we’re always looking for innovative ways to safely move our city forward,” Mayor Adams mentioned in an announcement saying that the agency — a subsidiary of tech behemoth Alphabet, Google’s mother or father firm — may start testing so-called “self-driving” options underneath restricted circumstances with a human within the drivers’ seat.
In July, the corporate started operating its automobiles — identifiable by their spinning, roof-mounted sensor system — alongside metropolis streets, however all the time with a human in full management.
Now, lower than two months later, the town’s Transportation Division has authorised Waymo’s plans to let computer systems start to take the wheel.
“As autonomous vehicle technology expands across the country, DOT has put in place comprehensive safety guidelines to ensure safe, responsible testing on our city’s streets,” metropolis Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez mentioned in an announcement. “These requirements will help ensure that the development of this technology is focused, first and foremost, on the safety of everyone who shares our busy city streets.”
The DOT guidelines will nonetheless require a human within the driver seat, in a position to intervene if wanted. However Waymo can now allow so-called “self-driving” options on eight vehicles from under a hundred and tenth St. in Manhattan right into a portion of Downtown Brooklyn.
New York State regulation continues to ban totally autonomous operation with no human driver within the automotive, thus forbidding the sort of driverless service Waymo gives in San Francisco and elsewhere. Waymo has been lobbying to alter that regulation: An effort to permit driverless automobile operation is at the moment earlier than the Transportation Committee of the State Senate, however has stalled out within the Meeting.
Describing Friday’s announcement as “more about political favor and less about consumer appetite,” the taxi advocate questioned the demand for driverless vehicles in a metropolis she mentioned is understood for “vibrant human interaction.”
The New York Metropolis Taxi & Limousine Fee at the moment prohibits any self-driving options in for-hire service, and any automotive choosing up passengers within the metropolis is required by regulation to have TLC licensing and approval. No Waymo vehicles have utilized for or been issued TLC plates, officers mentioned.
Initially Revealed: August 22, 2025 at 9:18 AM EDT
