Legislation recently proposed in New Jersey’s Senate and Assembly seeks to slow the advent of autonomous cabs by as many as five years – including a requirement that on-road testing be performed with a human driver in the vehicle for three years. The proposal, S4702, which was approved by the Senate Transportation Committee on Nov. 10, was still before the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee in mid-December, where changes to the legislation could still be made.
The delay is being criticized by advocates for blind individuals and Waymo, which provides autonomous rides in other U.S. cities. Waymo unsuccessfully argued, thus far, to have the bill amended to waive the on-board driver requirement.
The New Jersey Business and Industry Association (NJBIA) supports the bill as a balance between innovation and consumer protection, with “common sense safeguards,” explained Jack Ramirez, NJBIA’s Director of Research. A pilot program would be overseen by a seven-member task force, including representatives from an autonomous vehicle (AV) developer. AVs used as taxis would be required to operate on designated highways, be marked as fully autonomous and be continuously monitored through data reporting. The vehicles would also be required to have communication systems for emergency overrides by authorities.
The debate is heating up as The New York Post reported in December that San Francisco residents are griping that “Waymo’s once-polite self-driving cars are suddenly behaving like ‘an aggressive, New York taxi driver,’ weaving through tunnels in zigzags, rolling through stops and squeezing past other cars.”
In September, police in nearby San Bruno, Calif. pulled over a Waymo after it made an illegal U-turn – a sign of how sharply the company has reprogrammed its cars to be more “confidently assertive.” Chris Ludwick, Waymo’s senior director of product management, told The Wall Street Journal that the company has wired the vehicles to be more aggressive due to the fact that its overly passive driving was disrupting traffic on San Francisco’s crowded streets.
Jennifer Jeffries, who has logged nearly 3,000 minutes in Waymos, told The Journal that the cars are driving “closer to other vehicles than she expects and slipping around obstacles that once left them stuck. Sometimes I’ll be in the back seat and I’ll be like, ‘Ooh that was really close.’”
Marc Schreiber, a pedestrian quoted in the Journal article, described the newfound aggression as “jarring,” recalling an instance when a Waymo began accelerating through a crosswalk as soon as he cleared the front of the vehicle.
Waymo’s broader safety record shows a vehicle program under growing federal scrutiny, as regulators and local authorities track a rising number of documented violations, software failures and real-world mishaps. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened multiple investigations into the tech, including reports that Waymo vehicles drove around stopped school buses with their red lights flashing and stop arms deployed. School districts in Austin reported 19 similar violations in 2025.
Additional dangerous driving behaviors have included collisions with stationary objects, lane departures and stop-signal issues. The company announced several software recalls tied to technical failures, including crashes with chains, gates, utility poles and improperly towed vehicles. Waymos have also been involved in rear-end crashes, pedestrian incidents and multiple animal strikes.
Sources: Government Technology, The New York Post
