Community News

Assemblyman Ta Introduces Bill to Give Law Enforcement Authority to Cite Fully Autonomous Vehicles

 

by: Emanuel Patrascu
Published: March 2, 2026

 

ORANGE COUNTY...Assemblyman Tri Ta announced the introduction of Assembly Bill 2193. This would give law enforcement the ability to ticket a company that operates a fully autonomous vehicle passenger transport service for violations of California’s traffic laws by one of their vehicles.

When a driver fails to stop at a stop sign, the driver is responsible and can receive a citation. When an autonomous vehicle fails to stop at a stop sign, there is no “driver” to cite. To correct this error in law, AB 2193 treats the autonomous vehicle’s owner as the driver, so any violation of the rules of the road is the company's responsibility.

Driverless vehicles have been involved in traffic infractions, such as Illegal U-turns, parking violations, driving around stopped school buses, and running red lights. There was one instance in which a driverless taxi in San Bruno performed an illegal U-turn, which police couldn't ticket because their citation books do not have a box for ‘robot.’ However, law enforcement did notify the company of the “glitch.”

“AB 2193 strikes a balance between providing a service to our residents while ensuring public safety,” stated Ta. “This bill would treat driverless cars as if there were a real person behind the wheel. If any other driver breaks our traffic laws, they get a ticket.”