this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2025
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[–] boydster@sh.itjust.works 71 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

The self-driving cab, however, didn’t get dinged like you or us. Since there was no one operating the vehicle, the cops couldn’t issue a citation. But they did reach out to Waymo’s parent company Google to let them know about the glitch.

“Our citation books don’t have a box for ‘robot,'” the department said.

It frustrates me that Google doesn't get a citation for this. It's just another example of how laws don't apply to the people pulling all the strings. They need to be just as accountable as anyone else, even if it's robots doing the driving. Whoever is ultimately responsible for the unacceptable behavior needs to be held accountable, or they'll learn they can keep doing unacceptable shit in new and creative ways without any real legal or financial risk for engaging in the bad behavior. If corporations are people, and corporate robots are doing things people get in trouble with the cops for, corporations need to be in trouble with the cops and the courts and feel the same heat.

[–] dantheclamman@lemmy.world 29 points 2 weeks ago

Corporations are only people when it benefits them. Speech is only free when it benefits them. The market is only free when it benefits them. Congress only holds power of the purse when it benefits them. Hypocrisy is a tool the oligarchs use to express their power. Hypocrisy is the point.

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

From my understanding, Waymo operates under special permission from the State's Department of Transportation. They're requires to submit even minor traffic incidents that otherwise would be ignored, etc. to the State and a lot of data is collected that is ignored for regular drivers.

If they wanted, they could make whatever changes necessary to handle citations for these vehicles. They just haven't.

[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

There's a new law coming that will start the citations in CA, at least according to local news. Not sure about the dates, but they are addressing it supposedly.