Rep. Kevin Mullin announced the "AV Emergency Response Coordination Act" at a Mission Bay firehouse Tuesday, promising national standards to keep robotaxis clear of first responders. Waymo praised the idea in general and declined to endorse the bill.

A U.S. House member is trying to regulate robotaxis from Washington after San Francisco spent two years as their crash-test city. Rep. Kevin Mullin announced the "AV Emergency Response Coordination Act" on Tuesday from the steps of Fire Station 4 in Mission Bay, promising uniform national standards that would require autonomous vehicles to yield to police, firefighters and paramedics, according to Mission Local, which covered the news conference.

The tell is where he stood and who stood with him. Mayor Daniel Lurie — who welcomed Waymo onto car-free Market Street in 2025 — joined the announcement despite having, in his own city, almost no power to regulate the cars. That authority sits with the California Public Utilities Commission and the Department of Motor Vehicles, and Mission Local reported both agencies declined to respond to either Lurie's demands or Mullin's bill. The federal move is what happens when the officials closest to the problem can't touch it.

As described by its sponsor, the bill would set "uniform safety standards" nationally, stand up a 24/7 hotline for public officials to reach AV operators directly, and create a process for local agencies to request that robotaxis geofence around active emergencies. It would apply to every autonomous-vehicle company, not just Waymo.

What's not yet on the table: a bill number, published text, or a cosponsor list, none of which was reported Tuesday. A single-member bill introduced without cosponsors is a press event first and legislation second; whether it draws a committee hearing is the real test, and there's no sign of one yet.

Waymo's response was a study in careful nouns. Tiffany Moore, the company's head of federal policy, told Mission Local that Waymo supports "minimum guidelines" and a "consistent framework" for how AVs handle first responders — and did not say whether it backs Mullin's bill. Support the category, decline the specific.

The backdrop is real and documented: the July 4th gridlock at the Golden Gate Bridge, where Waymos ran out of battery and needed tows that stalled robotaxis then blocked; a December power outage that froze the fleet citywide; and a Waymo in Austin that reportedly blocked responders headed to a mass shooting. Earlier this month, NHTSA — no one's idea of an aggressive regulator — put AV operators on formal notice, calling the incidents "unacceptable." Watch for whether any of it turns into a docket number.