California to begin ticketing driverless cars that violate traffic laws

California is finally doing what a lot of baffled commenters thought was already happening: starting 1 July, police can ticket driverless car companies when their cars break traffic laws. That means if a robotaxi blows a turn, blocks an emergency scene, or causes chaos in traffic, officers can send a formal notice straight to the manufacturer instead of awkwardly pulling over a car with nobody to hand a ticket to. Yes, the community reaction was basically: "Hold on — they weren’t doing this already?" One commenter summed up the collective double take with a deadpan "that seems wrong," and honestly, that mood carried the thread.

But the comments weren’t just shock — they were spicy. One frequent Waymo rider said they love the service after hundreds of rides, then immediately roasted it for blocking a full lane outside their apartment like it owns the street. That split-screen reaction — obsessed customer, furious neighbor — became the vibe of the whole discussion. Others zoomed out and asked the darker question: if a human driver can be punished for a deadly mistake, what happens when software does it? A fine? A shutdown? Executives in trouble? Meanwhile, skeptics argued ticketing is almost too human a solution for a machine problem, saying the state should set hard safety limits instead of playing traffic cop with computers.

The result: a classic California tech drama where the state says it’s leading the future, and the comment section says the future should probably learn how not to do illegal U-turns during a blackout.