The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has demanded that the country’s autonomous vehicle developers fix a “clear pattern” of driverless cars interfering with law enforcement, ambulances and other first responder vehicles. Administrator Jonathan Morrison’s letter, issued 8 July, calls the inability to detect and respond to emergency scenes “a functional insufficiency” rather than a rare edge case.

NHTSA said it had documented multiple instances, across multiple operators, of autonomous vehicles driving into active emergency scenes, blocking ambulances and fire trucks, or failing to adequately respond to flashing lights, flares, smoke, fire and traffic cones. The agency did not name any specific company, although multiple instances can be attributed to known events, such as Waymo vehicles driving illegally into active construction zones despite the presence of traffic cones. 

The agency has given automated driving system developers until the end of the month to present solutions and said it would schedule meetings to hear them. Morrison’s letter draws a direct parallel to human drivers: “That is why human drivers who impede these operations are subject to fines and even jail time.”

Autonomous driving companies have a habit of flaunting the idea that their self-driving technology is a great deal safer than human drivers. Indeed, this was Waymo’s defence when urged to stop operating vehicles in neighbourhoods during school hours, following a series of incidents in late 2025 and early 2026 involving stopped school buses, and an additional instance of a Waymo robotaxi striking a child at low speed. 

At roughly 4,000 vehicles, Waymo has by far the largest robotaxi fleet worldwide

However, the pattern of interrupting emergency vehicles is well-documented and not merely anecdotal. A previous investigation by TechCrunch identified at least six incidents through March 2026 in which first responders had to take control of Waymo vehicles and move them out of traffic. This included one in the middle of a mass shooting response, and another in June when an officer moved a Waymo blocking the route to a natural gas explosion.

Reuters separately reported local media coverage of a Waymo vehicle in Dallas that partially blocked a route fire trucks were using to reach a burning apartment building in late May, alongside other reported footage of Waymo vehicles blocking an ambulance and driving through an active police scene. Waymo declined to comment on the NHTSA letter.

The letter arrives as NHTSA simultaneously moves to loosen equipment requirements that could benefit companies building vehicles without traditional controls, a criteria which covers both Tesla and Zoox. The former is in the middle of ramping production of the Cybercab, despite no clear regulatory path to the vehicle being road-legal in any US state. The agency has also proposed eliminating requirements for windshield wipers, sun visors, defogging systems and tire placards, and is working on further updates to lighting, mirror and stability-control standards under its 2026 Regulatory Plan.

That combination puts pressure on self-driving developers to show that stripping out conventional controls does not come at the cost of basic emergency-response competence. NHTSA has not specified what penalties non-compliance might carry, but its letter states plainly “an AV that cannot safely interact with first responders is a danger to the general public”. The agency warned it will continue to use its enforcement authority against developers that do not address this concern.