California has apparently figured out the answer — or at least decided to pretend it has. Under new DMV regulations, law enforcement officers can now issue traffic citations to autonomous vehicles. The policy shift arrives alongside another bombshell: driverless trucks will also be allowed on California roadways.

Let's start with the obvious. The ability to ticket a robot car is, on its face, completely reasonable. AVs operate on public roads, and if they violate traffic laws, there should be an enforcement mechanism. No argument there. The real question is whether this is genuine accountability or just regulatory theater designed to make Sacramento look like it has a handle on technology it barely understands.

Because here's the thing — Waymo and its competitors aren't racking up violations the way your average Uber driver blowing through a stop sign on Divisadero is. The safety data on autonomous vehicles is remarkably strong, and San Franciscans know it firsthand. As one local resident put it, "I choose Waymo every time. I think it's a lot safer beyond the driving aspect. I never liked getting in a car with a stranger." Another SF resident was more blunt: "If you lived here you would understand why I prefer Waymo over human drivers."

So we're in a strange spot. The government is creating enforcement infrastructure for vehicles that, statistically, are among the safest on the road — while human drivers continue to terrorize pedestrians on Market Street with impunity.

The driverless truck provision is where things get genuinely interesting, and potentially transformative. If autonomous trucking scales in California, we're talking about massive implications for the supply chain, labor markets, and highway safety. That deserves its own serious policy conversation, not a footnote buried under a headline about robot speeding tickets.

Our take? Accountability for AV companies is fine. But let's not confuse ticketing algorithms with solving actual road safety problems. If Sacramento spent half as much energy enforcing traffic laws against human drivers as it does regulating the robots, our streets would be a lot safer.