Marketplace Tech · Friday, July 17, 2026
Uber is lobbying against a bill in the D.C. Council that would allow fully driverless cars, advocating instead for a hybrid approach. The company argues that users should have the choice between human-driven rides and robo-taxis, citing concerns about congestion and safety incidents involving autonomous vehicles.
“Uber is really pushing for this idea that if they are going to be robo taxis, uh, robo taxi should not be the only option on an app or however users are hailing those rides. That users should have the choice between human rides and robo taxi rides. And their big argument is that robo taxis alone lead to congestion.”
“They, there continue to be issues such as here in San Francisco and Austin where robo taxis are blocking fire trucks or paramedics, uh, going into construction sites. There's been incidents a couple of weeks ago, here around July 4th, where a Waymo robo taxi went over a fireworks that someone was lighting on the street. You know, they, you know, they, they, their relative safe, and you know, maybe on the whole they are more safe than human drivers. But they continue to have these, you know, odd brain farts and Uber's argument is like people should have a choice and that we should not lean deeply on robo taxis because that will lead to all these issues.”