Let that sink in. A driverless car — one operating on San Francisco streets under the blessing of state regulators — allegedly behaved in a way that, if a human were behind the wheel, would look indistinguishable from a DUI. The incident occurred around 7:50 PM, a time when pedestrians, cyclists, and Muni riders are all competing for space in one of the Castro's busiest corridors.

As one local put it: "That intersection is close to so many important public transit routes. Hope nobody got hurt… This is frightening."

Another SF resident had a slightly different take: "It's practicing for an upcoming Waymo sideshow."

Look — we're not anti-technology at The Dissent. Autonomous vehicles represent a genuinely promising future, and Waymo has racked up millions of miles with a safety record that, statistically, often beats human drivers. But "statistically" is cold comfort when a two-ton robot is executing an impromptu three-point turn into your lane while you lay on the horn.

The real issue here isn't the technology itself — it's the regulatory framework. California's DMV has a feedback form where citizens can report incidents like this one. A feedback form. For a car that drove into oncoming traffic. That's the bureaucratic equivalent of a suggestion box at a restaurant that just served you glass in your salad.

If a rideshare driver pulled this stunt, their account would be deactivated before they got home. When an autonomous vehicle does it, we get… a web form and a shrug from Sacramento.

Waymo and its competitors should be held to a higher standard than human drivers, not a lower one. If you're going to ask a city of 800,000 people to share their streets with your science experiment, the minimum ask is that it follows basic traffic laws. Stopping randomly in intersections and lurching into oncoming traffic doesn't meet that bar.

If you witnessed the incident, you can file a report with the California DMV's autonomous vehicle feedback form. The plate number in question: 35305B4. Maybe if enough people fill out the form, someone in a government office will actually read one.