What's the deal with self-driving cars in D.C.?

If you want a somewhat useless piece of trivia to impress your friends, try this: D.C. was among the first places in the country to legalize self-driving cars, just over a decade ago.

Google first brought its prototype self-driving Toyota Prius to D.C. in early 2012, giving a ride to two local lawmakers — one of whom mused that it might only be a few years before self-driving cars are the norm. 

Well, it’s many years and plenty of technological advances later, and self-driving cars — also known as autonomous vehicles — are still mostly a curiosity here. But that could change: Waymo, the evolution of Google’s early self-driving project, has been testing in D.C. for 18 months. And there’s currently another company self-driving its cars on the city’s streets: Zoox, which is owned by Amazon.

What’s going on with Waymo and other self-driving companies?

Waymo first came to D.C. in April 2024, using humans to drive the white all-electric Jaguar I-Pace sedans — outfitted with sensors on the front, sides, back, and roof — around D.C. to start mapping the city’s often complicated streets and traffic patterns.

And the jokes started almost immediately. “There’s not enough processing power or algorithms in the world that will allow these to predict what [Maryland] drivers will do and allow [them] to safely navigate,” said one commenter on the D.C. Reddit.

Waymo says its two-dozen vehicles since have logged hundreds of thousands of autonomous miles in the District. And earlier this year, the company announced that it was aiming to actually start carrying D.C. passengers in 2026 (it currently offers rides in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta.)

Just last month, Zoox similarly started testing in D.C., its first location in the Mid-Atlantic. The company says the city is an ideal place to do testing, which is also happening in eight other U.S. cities.

“D.C. presents a complex and unique street layout, along with seasonal weather challenges. The city’s street network includes many traffic circles, diagonal avenues, and high pedestrian and bicycle traffic. Additionally, D.C.’s mix of humid summers, occasional snowfall, and unpredictable rainfall creates diverse weather conditions for testing driving performance,” it said in a statement.

A third company, the self-driving vehicle startup Nuro, also just wrapped up its own round of testing in D.C., according to the District Department of Transportation.  

I want to get into one of these self-driving cars. What’s the holdup?

Well, the law, for one. 

In 2020, the D.C. Council passed a law creating a formal testing program for self-driving cars. It also required that the D.C. Department of Transportation produce a report providing “recommendations to safely accommodate the deployment of autonomous vehicles on public roadways for commercial, personal, and any other use” by late 2022. That report would lay the foundation for legislation the council would have to adopt clearing the way for passenger service in self-driving cars.

But that report has yet to be finished. While city officials say they had to stop work on the report because of a spending freeze in city agencies (thanks, Congress!), there still hasn’t been any explanation on why the report wasn’t finished at any point in 2023 or 2024. 

“I want DDOT to finish its work before we tackle the legislation that’s necessary,” Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, who chairs the council’s transportation committee, told the 51st. 

As for Waymo, the company is trying to nudge D.C. along.

“We'll be ready to operate in Washington, D.C. next year if it is legal to do so,” write Waymo spokesman Ethan Teicher in an email. “We're now asking the council and mayor to enact commonsense regulations that enable Waymo to bring the same safe, reliable, and accessible service to D.C. that we currently provide in five major U.S. cities, hundreds of thousands of times every week.”

The Washington Post’s editorial board, though, is being less gentle, opining last week that Allen and the council are stalling for no good reason. 

“I don’t think we should be afraid of this technology or throw up obstacles,” Allen says. “But my job isn’t to say, ‘How fast can I roll this out?’, but rather, ‘How can we get this right?’ I’d rather get it done right than get it done fast.”

What are the benefits of self-driving cars in D.C.?

Beyond the technology that goes into self-driving cars, proponents argue that they are simply safer than human drivers. They don’t get tired or cranky, they’re not easily distracted, and there’s no such thing as a Maryland self-driver. Waymo says its vehicles are involved in five times fewer injury-causing collisions compared to normal people, and eleven times fewer crashes that cause serious injuries. 

The technology has also gotten the blessing from the League of American Bicyclists. “The League believes that autonomous vehicles will eventually improve the safety of people who bike and walk and provide opportunities for communities to create better places to bike and walk as vehicles become more law-abiding and predictable. AVs cannot be distracted, should not be able to speed or otherwise violate traffic laws, and should be able to detect, recognize, and react to bicyclists and pedestrians as well as human drivers or better,” the group writes.

What are the concerns with self-driving cars coming to D.C.?

All that being said, there’s natural skepticism of any cars without drivers. The technology has certainly gotten better, but it’s not perfect. 

Last year, for example, the Post’s technology columnist — who is based in San Francisco — kept noticing that Waymo vehicles wouldn’t stop for him in crosswalks. And more recently, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an investigation into Waymo after some of its cars were seen illegally navigating around school buses with their stop-sign lights extended.  

In Austin, where Waymo operates passenger service, Axios reported that “residents have reported the cars in minor collisions, nearly hitting pedestrians, and idling on neighborhood streets all night.” 

Of course, people also do all those things. “There’s a lot of people who are not good drivers,” says Allen. “If this is a step in the direction of safety, it’s one to fully explore.”

One broader worry has less to do with safety than it does people. Taxis and Ubers are currently operated by people making a living, after all, and a full deployment of robotaxis would upend that business model. Maybe, but Allen says there is time to prepare.

“I don’t think we’re anywhere near seeing Waymo just eliminate an Uber or a workforce anytime in the near future,” he says. “I don’t think the scale will be there. The transition will be a little slower."