New Orleans Weighs Robotaxi Rules to Put Waymo on a Level Playing Field With Rideshares
NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans City Council, in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, is advancing a proposal to regulate robotaxis, requiring operators such as Waymo to meet permit fees, fines and safety standards comparable to those for rideshare services. The proposal, put forward by Council President JP Morrell, is scheduled for review by the council's Government Affairs Committee on October 27, in a meeting open to the public.
Morrell said the council is not taking a position on whether Waymo may operate, but "what we can do is put a regulatory scheme in place that creates an equal-level playing field between Waymo and other industries that employ actual human beings, and say these are the safety standards you have to meet to be on our streets." He said he has tried to regulate industries as they arrive in the city rather than after they are already established, pointing to past battles over rideshares and short-term rentals.
A Waymo spokesperson said such regulation "could delay" the company's launch in New Orleans; Waymo currently has about a dozen vehicles testing on city streets with safety drivers. Mayor Helena Moreno's administration said in September that the city "will work in collaboration with the council to finalize and implement these policies." Years ago, traditional cab companies sued rideshare drivers over rules they said created an uneven playing field; the council says it wants the rules for driverless taxis in place before the services scale up. (GSM, based on GovTech and The Times-Picayune)
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 新奥尔良法国区 Bourbon Street（资料图）。Diego Delso 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons 发布。Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, New Orleans (file photo). Photo by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
