Minneapolis draft rule would require paid safety operators in every driverless car; Waymo calls it a de facto ban
surmenok · x · 2026-09-15
Minneapolis is drafting a rule requiring every commercial driverless car to keep a licensed, paid human within reach of the controls at minimum wage or better, with a public hearing set for September 22.
- Waymo has tested in the city since November but hasn't carried a passenger yet; it calls the rule a de facto ban. Sponsors are the "Workers Drive Minneapolis" group.
- A state bill that would have blocked cities from writing such rules failed in the Legislature in March.
- Steve Sinofsky amplified the story with an elevator-operator analogy: the odds of a human driver overriding the autonomous stack and causing damage far exceed the odds of the autonomous stack itself causing damage.
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