Uber and Waymo split over Washington D.C.'s robotaxi bill

The D.C. Council is evaluating legislation that would permit robotaxis to operate in the district. According to sources and correspondence Uber sent the Council, Uber opposes the bill, arguing it would displace human for-hire drivers and hand Waymo a de facto monopoly. Instead, Uber has lobbied for a “hybrid” system that would require autonomous vehicles to operate on a ride-hailing network alongside human drivers — an approach insiders say has little chance of becoming law.

The clash follows weeks of deteriorating relations between Uber and Waymo, whose ride-hailing partnership has been fraying. A prior report predicted the two companies would land on opposite sides of autonomous-vehicle policy — a forecast borne out by weeks of source conversations and a review of correspondence Uber sent the D.C. Council.

If the hybrid model were adopted, it would leave autonomous-vehicle developers like Waymo choosing between putting robotaxis on ride-hailing apps such as Uber’s, or running human drivers alongside fleets of robotaxis that took years and hundreds of millions of dollars to build.

A D.C. Council hearing on Monday drew representatives from Lyft, Tesla, Uber, and Waymo, alongside disability rights and accessibility advocates, local business and industry groups, highway safety organizations, government officials, labor unions, and think tanks. Public testimony and follow-up conversations suggest Waymo is one of the few companies that generally supports the bill, while much of the rest of the industry does not.

Tesla’s senior policy adviser, India Herdman, raised objections shared by multiple autonomous-vehicle developers: the bill’s 180-day, 250,000-mile mandatory testing requirement, a $1 million application fee, a $5 million permit fee, and a $0.15-per-mile tax. Tesla and other companies argued that testing miles logged in other jurisdictions should count toward the mileage threshold.

Waymo, which has been testing its autonomous vehicles with human safety operators in Washington, D.C., has already surpassed the bill’s 180-day and 250,000-mile requirements. That means if the bill passed as written today, Waymo would enter the market with at least a six-month head start over rivals still working toward the threshold — a gap the fee and tax provisions would do nothing to close.

Why it matters

The fight over D.C.’s robotaxi rules is a preview of a broader industry split: incumbents with ride-hailing networks want autonomous vehicles folded into their existing platforms, while AV developers that have already invested in standalone fleets want rules that let them operate independently — a divide likely to shape autonomous-vehicle policy fights in other cities.