Hochul backs off proposal to allow robotaxis outside New York City

ALBANY — Gov. Kathy Hochul has decided not to move forward with a proposal to allow autonomous vehicles like Waymo in areas outside of New York City.

The proposal in her 2027 budget was met with opposition from taxi drivers and labor groups, as well as some state legislators.

"Based on conversations with stakeholders, including in the legislature, it was clear that the support was not there to advance this proposal," said Sean Butler, a spokesman for the governor in a statement Thursday.

The proposal would have allowed the state Department of Motor Vehicles to begin approving tests in areas outside New York City. Companies would have needed to show sufficient community support to deploy their vehicles and would have been allowed to accept paying customers after one year.

Hochul’s proposal had noted that "growing evidence that autonomous vehicles can improve road safety and transportation options when introduced thoughtfully."

A spokesman for Waymo, a riderless car company and subsidiary of Google’s parent, Alphabet, said in a statement that the company was disappointed by Hochul's rollback. The company will continue to push for legislation that would bring its vehicles to the state.

Waymo provides 400,000 rides a week across six major metro areas: Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, San Francisco and Austin, Texas, according to the company.

The company has been testing eight of its autonomous vehicles without passengers in some New York City neighborhoods since last year. Waymo can continue to test drive its vehicles in the city through March 31.

State Sen. Jeremy Cooney (D-Rochester) said he plans to work on legislation outside of the budget process to allow autonomous vehicles to expand in New York State. Cooney chairs the state Senate Transportation Committee.

"This is not science fiction, rather a real opportunity to increase driver and pedestrian safety across our state," he said in a statement.

Waymo recently raised an additional $16 billion to expand its fleet of self-driving cars, according to The Associated Press. It's gearing up to enter more than 20 other cities, including London and Tokyo.

Proponents argue automated vehicles would ease commutes on local streets and highways while reducing traffic injuries and deaths caused by human error and impaired driving. But skeptics want more safety data and also fear that the vehicles could worsen congestion and threaten jobs in the transportation sector, which employs 50,000 people on Long Island, according to previous Newsday reporting.

Bhairavi Desai, executive director of New York Taxi Workers Alliance, previously told Newsday she sees potential parallels with the expansion of Uber and Lyft to the city more than a decade ago, which led to crushing medallion debt and suicides among taxicab drivers.

"Autonomous vehicles are a fantasy for trillionaires that will cost hundreds of thousands of working-class families their primary livelihood. And the governor has a responsibility to create jobs, not destroy them," Desai said.

Other companies, like Tesla and Amazon’s Zoox, are also building autonomous taxi businesses.