this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2025
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[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Shut it down and impound it? It's a fucking piece of MALFUNCTIONAL equipment, SHUT IT DOWN.

[–] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 day ago

Okay so they can't give it a citation. However aren't there seperate laws that could be employed? If a car is not roadworthy they are not allowed to let it continue the journey. Like without light at night, or with a missing wheel.

When a driverless car autonomously breaks rules of the road, doesn't that make it a malfunctioning piece of equipment. One that is dangerous to let continue?

[–] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 52 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The entire reason they’re deploying AI in the battlefields is to avoid accountability for those firing. The lack of accountability is an intended feature, not a bug.

[–] bigbabybilly@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

A troubling conclusion I hadn’t yet come to. God damn.

[–] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They’re not being subtle about it. The weapons companies are offering it as a selling point at the conventions.

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[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago

How did you make these legal and not put in place a process for this? Absolutely corrupt incompetence.

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 47 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Ticket the damn manufacturer. They need to be made to understand not to put substandard devices into public hands

[–] FuckFascism@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)
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[–] PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social 239 points 3 days ago (12 children)

“Since there was no human driver, a ticket couldn’t be issued (our citation books don’t have a box for “robot”),” reads the post.

The department said that it had alerted Waymo of the glitch

That's not how it fucking works

How have you guys not bothered to prepare for this? It's not the cop's fault, but it is not a secret that there are Waymo cars in San Francisco. How is this something that nobody thought of?

Last year, California governor Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill that allows police officers to issue a “notice of noncompliance” if a driverless car breaks traffic laws. The law goes into effect in July 2026.

Oh, pardon me. So you're on top of it.

The bill was introduced by assemblymember Phil Ting of San Francisco amid several incidents in the city, including driverless cars blocking traffic, dragging a pedestrian, interfering with firetrucks, and entering active crime scenes.

And your plan was to call up Waymo and ask them politely to improve their tech please? Or, that becomes the plan as of 2026?

With the new law, first responders can order a company to move autonomous vehicles out of an area, and the company has two minutes to direct its cars to leave or avoid that area.

The San Bruno police department, in response to people who believed officers were being lenient, reaffirmed: “There is legislation in the works that will allow officers to issue the company notices.”

My guy these cars went on the road EIGHT FUCKING YEARS AGO

The big invasion of Ukraine was years in the future, Covid hadn't happened and wasn't going to any time soon, Obama had just stepped down, CALIFORNIA EXPLAIN

[–] GrabtharsHammer@lemmy.world 176 points 3 days ago (6 children)

Dude, you can't just penalize a corporation. That would be commiesocialism or something.

[–] Mobiuthuselah@mander.xyz 55 points 3 days ago (7 children)

According to the government, "Corporations are people too."

[–] Inucune@lemmy.world 31 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'll believe a corporation is a person when The Texas department of corrections executes one.

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[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 24 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Doesn't the car have an owner? Because in Brazil, the ticket always goes to the owner, even when someone else is driving - something that has its share of problems

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

That's how a lot of US states do it for speed cameras.

Just realized I'm not sure if the same happens when you get pulled over or are driving a rental but in general the idea fixes more problems than it causes.

[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Google. You think they give a fuck about anything less than six figure sums? Hell, seven figure sums. A low our figure traffic fine is probably less than the person handling the paperwork makes in a week at Google.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 28 points 2 days ago

Easy, Just impound it. When they have to deal with going to get them in person, they'll stop the illegal shit

[–] deathbird@mander.xyz 102 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Just impound the vehicle when the driver refuses to sign, or rip the axle out.

You know, like if it had a human owner.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 54 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Corporations are people right. So why aren’t they sent all these tickets.

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[–] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 25 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Honestly, should just impound all of the fleet immediately.

If the goal of the ticket is to stop the danger and enforce compliance, it has to be to the company via the entire fleet, and it must hurt them financially enough to immediately change the behavior.

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[–] PDFuego@lemmy.world 41 points 2 days ago (8 children)

I can see rego plates in the picture, are they not linked to anyone? Ticket the owner, it's not rocket science.

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[–] hayvan@feddit.nl 2 points 1 day ago

Issue a ticket to the owner of the car. Let them contest in court that they were not driving it.

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 47 points 3 days ago (8 children)

It really doesn't take much intelligence to figure out who needs to get the ticket for that.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 17 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Spoken like someone who hasn't had to interact with American law enforcement much.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 14 points 2 days ago

Being intelligent is quite literally a disqualifying characteristic.

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[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 60 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Aircraft must have pilots in command.

Radio stations must have control operators.

Pedestrian manglers can just roam free!

[–] slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org 29 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Even a train, the thing that runs on rails has operators

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[–] jacksilver@lemmy.world 24 points 2 days ago

What is this "Airbud" rules.

Cant give it a ticket cause my ticket book doesn't say anything about "robots" breaking laws.

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

You know, we should re-assess many assumptions in light of emerging technologies. Even the conceptual value of labour is becoming more and more obsolete as AI and automation comes. We need a new Marx in relation to data as leverage to demand social equity, as in advocate for universal basic income/utility. Tech barons stole our data to train AI and automation, it's only right we bear fruit from our personal information.

[–] badgermurphy@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago (27 children)

Be careful what you wish for. UBI assumes a small group in power will, while having all the resources in their hands, fairly distribute them to everyone and never use them as a bargaining chip to force our compliance with whatever actions they're trying to take.

The whole UBI idea seems like a trap for the general public to accept the notion that it inevitable that a small oligarchic group must have all the resources consolidated to them, to stop us from working towards a true egalitarian economy.

There is no time I am aware of in history where a large group in power distributed vast resources to the community without being compelled to do so by threat of force.

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[–] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I wonder, if they hinder the car enough, wouldn't that cause the remote operator to connect to it? Sounds like you've now identified a driver :-)

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[–] Psythik@lemmy.world 25 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

These things make illegal left turns across double yellows and even opposing left turn lanes. They will literally stop in the middle of the road and block traffic to make the turn, instead of pulling up to the nearest center lane/left turn lane. I report it every time through the Waymo app but they keep doing it regardless.

It's at the point where I have to carefully plan my route to prevent the car from making stupid illegal moves. But even with the mistakes I still trust them more than I do a human driver. They just need more refinement, but Google doesn't seem to actually give a fuck about my feedback.

That said, at least they actually go to the pickup marker I set and wait patiently for me to arrive, unlike Uber/Lyft drivers who ignore your pickup spot, and then immediately cancel the ride when they don't see me because they went to the wrong pickup spot!

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