Police officers in San Bruno, California, may have found themselves fondly remembering simpler times late last Saturday night.

Two officers were out on DUI patrol and “observed something unusual.” At first, it just looked like a white Jaguar making an illegal U-turn directly in front of them at a light. What kind of human driver would pull that stunt with a patrol car present? Turns out, a human didn’t.

The EV was a self-driving taxicab developed by Google’s Waymo subsidiary. The department joked, “It was a first for both officers…”

Who even gets the ticket?

The police put it succinctly: “No driver, no hands, no clue.”

What’s the procedure when a robo-taxi breaks the law? Turns out there is no procedure. “Officers stopped the vehicle and contacted the company to let them know about the ‘glitch.’ Since there was no human driver, a ticket couldn’t be issued (our citation books don’t have a box for ‘robot’). Hopefully the reprogramming will keep it from making any more illegal moves.”

Californians are losing patience

When the department posted an amusing “DUI Enforcement… with a plot twist” post to social media, it got more than it bargained for. The post already has 600+ comments, 400+ shares, 2,500 reactions, and the responses keep rolling in. Many Californians appear fed up with autonomous vehicles.

A self-driving taxi hit and dragged a pedestrian in San Francisco. Angry mobs in both San Francisco and Los Angeles have wrecked and burned Waymo self-driving taxis in what I’ve dubbed the first hate crimes against robots.

The murky reality of enforcement

The San Bruno police responded, “Whether it’s drivers, passengers, or even driverless cars, we’ll continue to do our part to keep San Bruno’s streets safe.”

And while no one is doubting their good intentions, the whole point is that it’s very murky what their “part” is. The bottom line is an unsafe vehicle is driving around San Bruno and breaking traffic laws that we’ve all agreed upon—and is allowed to continue to do so. No wonder Californians are angry.

The police concluded, “For those who believe that we are being lenient, there is legislation in the works that will allow officers to issue the company notices…”

Stop playing softball with safety

If I wedged a brick on my car’s accelerator so it drove itself onto the street, you better believe I’d be held responsible for everything it did. Building a fancy self-driving car doesn’t make you immune to the law.

Here’s an idea: Instead of “notices” every time a Waymo car breaks the law, issue every single employee at the company a ticket. They’re all creating the car, writing the software to “drive” it together, and profiting from its work as a tax.

I wager the software would get updated real fast. And if these cars still can’t prove themselves safe, they’ll get yanked off the road by their own company.