DC Moves Forward on Self-Driving Taxi Study

• 11:09 AM EDT

by UrbanTurf Staff

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DC’s Department of Transportation (DDOT) has launched a new study on autonomous vehicles, a step that could eventually open city streets to fully driverless taxis. The move comes as Waymo — the Alphabet-owned robotaxi company — has been testing vehicles across the city and lobbying aggressively to begin commercial operations here.

Under current DC law, autonomous vehicle (AV) companies can test their fleets in the city, but vehicles must still have a human driver behind the wheel. The new study is intended to chart a path toward changing that.

The study has been a long time coming. The original mandate required DDOT to report on how to safely accommodate autonomous vehicles on public roadways, with a due date of fall 2022 — a deadline that came and went.  A federal budget-related funding gap further stalled the work, though DC has since entered a new fiscal year and the funds are back in District leaders' hands.

Waymo has grown frustrated with the pace. The company had been mapping the city's grid for a planned 2026 launch, but said in a statement that DDOT and the DC Council "have not made progress on a report or new rules, and have indicated there are no plans to move forward with regulation hearings in the near-term." Meanwhile, cities like San Francisco, Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta already have functioning Waymo services up and running.

Beyond the safety questions, DC lawmakers are also weighing the broader urban implications — from workforce disruption in the for-hire vehicle industry to how a robotaxi network might reshape transportation demand across neighborhoods. DDOT says it expects to propose recommendations on AV deployment later this year.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/dc_moves_forward_on_self-driving_taxi_study/24435.