WASHINGTON — A bill that would have allowed Waymo and other companies to run driverless ride-hail service in the District died in a D.C. Council committee Thursday, when a 3-3 vote left it short of the majority it needed to advance and pushed the question to the next Council and the incoming administration of Mayor-elect Janeese Lewis George.
Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), who chairs the Committee on Transportation and the Environment and wrote the bill, and Council member Christina Henderson voted for it. Council Chair Phil Mendelson, who may vote in any committee, joined them. Council members Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5) and Elissa Silverman and Lewis George, who represents Ward 4 until she takes office as mayor, voted no, WUSA9 reported. Allen had said that if the bill failed in committee, it would be dead for the year.
The measure, B26-0684, was introduced May 1 by Allen with Council members Brooke Pinto and Matthew Frumin and had a public hearing July 13, legislative records show. As introduced, it would have created a Commercial Autonomous Vehicles Program at the District Department of Transportation, required permit holders to file planning documents and data with the agency, set penalties and an appeals process, applied a vehicle-miles-traveled tax to commercial autonomous operations and required makers of automated driving systems to register with DDOT.
A rewrite that did not change the outcome
Allen released a redrafted version Tuesday after the members who voted no had signaled their opposition. It would have capped robotaxis at 200 per company and 800 across all operators, given rideshare drivers and autonomous-vehicle facility workers collective bargaining rights, and required that 20% of each operator’s fleet be wheelchair accessible by 2032, The Washington Sun and FOX 5 reported. FOX 5 said the bill would have allowed autonomous vehicles to carry passengers by 2028.
Allen called it “the most worker-friendly, the most safety-focused, the most progressive legislation” in the country, according to the Sun. “I don’t want D.C. to be the first, but I also don’t want us to be the last,” he said, WUSA9 reported.
Lewis George said she supports the technology but not on this timeline. “This technology itself is still in the test phase, and D.C. cannot be a guinea pig,” she said at the markup, according to FOX 5. “I do want to work with you and I want my administration to work with you to get deployment right.” Afterward she told reporters she hopes District agencies, “particularly our safety agencies,” will convene to work out what regulations are needed. “I’m not against AVs, I do want them to come here,” she said, the Sun reported.
Labor and business split
Labor unions and the D.C. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America packed the hearing room. “We’re not opposed to innovation. We just think that rushing such an important build through, it’s irresponsible,” said Jaime Contreras, executive vice president of 32BJ SEIU, according to FOX 5. An SEIU spokesperson told the Sun the unions want a clear legal process for rideshare drivers to organize and bargain, wage standards and a specific account of how workers would be protected from job or income losses.
Some business groups argued the District risks falling behind its neighbors. “I don’t want to see Maryland or Virginia taking the lead on this, because they’re going to do it,” said Anwar Saleem, executive director of H Street Main Street, FOX 5 reported. Allen told reporters the protections in his bill “may not be as strong when Virginia or Maryland or other jurisdictions move forward,” the Sun reported.
Waymo has tested its vehicles in the District with safety drivers since 2024 and has built three charging and maintenance facilities in the city, according to the Sun. “We applaud Councilmember Allen for championing AV authorization after nearly 15 years of D.C. studying this technology,” a Waymo spokesperson said Tuesday, WUSA9 reported. After the vote, the company told the Sun it remains “ready to work with the Council” but that “postponing this debate delays the additional investments and jobs that come with scaling our operations.”
What comes next
The 26th Council period ends at the close of the year, and bills that have not passed by then must be reintroduced in the new Council period. Allen remains committee chair through Jan. 2, 2027; WUSA9 reported it is unclear who will lead the committee after that. Malcom Fox of Opportunity D.C., an autonomous-vehicle advocate, told the Sun he did not expect a committee vote before about September 2027, and noted that the failed bill called for a year of advanced testing before commercial service.
The District passed one of the nation’s first autonomous-vehicle testing laws in 2012, and the Council has held three public hearings on deployment in the past two and a half years, the Sun reported.
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