New York State Policy

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has withdrawn a proposal that would have allowed commercial robotaxi operations in cities outside New York City, putting on ice plans for driverless ride services in places like Buffalo, Rochester and Albany. Her office said there was not enough support in the state Legislature after talks with labor unions, safety advocates, local officials and insurers, reflecting concerns over safety oversight, liability, emergency response and job losses. The move does not affect Waymo’s existing New York City testing permit, which lets the Alphabet subsidiary run autonomous vehicles only with a trained safety specialist behind the wheel. Waymo is already operating paid driverless services in the Phoenix area, Los Angeles, parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, Austin and Atlanta, and Arizona regulators have reported lower crash rates per mile than human drivers in some zones, but public trust remains fragile after Cruise’s high‑profile 2023 incident in San Francisco led to a shutdown and GM retrenchment. Transportation watchers note that if a large, transit‑heavy state like New York slows AV deployment outside its biggest city, legislators and regulators elsewhere are likely to take cues, ensuring robotaxi adoption remains patchy and heavily driven by local politics as much as by safety data.