Overview
- Four city councilors formally proposed the ordinance on Sept. 16 to require a licensed, paid “safety monitor” with immediate access to steering, braking and acceleration in every autonomous ride-hail vehicle operating in Minneapolis.
- The City Council set public hearings for Sept. 22 and Sept. 29 and tentatively scheduled a vote for Oct. 1 with the ordinance to take effect Oct. 1, 2027 if approved.
- Waymo, which has been testing a small fleet in the Twin Cities since November 2025, said the measure would be a “de facto ban” because paying a licensed monitor for each car would undercut the economics of driverless service.
- Supporters point to job and safety concerns, saying the rule would protect more than 10,000 local Uber and Lyft drivers and provide a human to intervene in system failures such as past operational outages; opponents and disability groups counter that fully autonomous vehicles can expand safe mobility for women and people with disabilities.
- The proposal lands in a wider national gap in regulation because Minnesota has no state law on autonomous passenger services and other states are taking varied approaches that could shape whether robotaxi fleets expand or stall.