California Senate Bill 1246, approved September 30, 2026, authorizes courts to impose a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per covered commercial autonomous vehicle when specified interference with emergency events, emergency operations or law-enforcement operations lasts more than 30 minutes after an emergency response official requests a local incident technician. The penalty is not an automatic ticket or fixed fine. The new provisions take effect July 1, 2028.
What conduct can lead to a penalty?
The up-to-$10,000 penalty concerns obstruction or other interference with emergency events, emergency operations or law-enforcement operations. Its 30-minute clock starts when an emergency response official requests a local incident technician—not simply when a vehicle first stops or becomes disabled. A court may impose the penalty per covered commercial autonomous vehicle.
The amount is a ceiling, not a guaranteed assessment. In deciding whether and how much to impose, a court may consider the violation’s severity and duration, its consequences, interference with emergency response or public safety, whether it was repeated, and relevant aggravating or mitigating circumstances.
A separate dispatch penalty
SB 1246 also authorizes a civil penalty of up to $5,000 for each violation of its local incident technician dispatch section, Section 38801. That is distinct from the up-to-$10,000 per-vehicle penalty for prolonged interference. The statute allows local city attorneys or county counsel to bring specified civil actions. Read the enacted text of SB 1246.
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What robotaxi manufacturers must do
The law imposes operational duties beyond penalties. Manufacturers must maintain emergency communications and enough capacity for concurrent remote-assistance or teleoperations sessions. If a qualifying incident occurs, they must arrange immediate dispatch of a local incident technician.
Dispatch and on-scene response
Technician dispatch is required after notice of specified crashes, immobilizations, obstructions or roadway hazards, and when requested by an emergency response official or 911 dispatch center. A technician can coordinate on the manufacturer’s behalf and manually relocate or tow a vehicle.
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The DMV must adopt reasonable technician response-time guidelines by July 1, 2028. Those guidelines are to account for factors such as geography, incident type and severity, road and traffic conditions, fleet concentration and public-safety needs. SB 1246 itself does not set one statewide arrival-time limit; the future guidelines will shape what response times are considered reasonable.
Fleetwide emergencies and geofencing
If a fleetwide emergency or system failure may create a traffic hazard or impede emergency response, manufacturers must immediately notify affected jurisdictions of fleet location and status. They must deploy technicians where appropriate when vehicles cannot be recovered remotely.
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Officials may send emergency geofencing messages directing a fleet to leave or avoid an area. Manufacturers must direct the fleet to comply within two minutes. This is a separate direction from sending a technician to an individual vehicle.
Emergency communications and reporting
Emergency lines and in-vehicle two-way communication must provide access to a remote human operator within 30 seconds. Manufacturers must also submit quarterly records, and the DMV must publish quarterly summary statistics.
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Remote drivers and remote assistants have different roles
SB 1246 distinguishes between two kinds of remote support. A remote driver performs real-time parts of the driving task, such as steering or braking. A remote assistant may give advice or revised goals but does not remotely drive the vehicle.
Remote drivers must be located in the United States and hold a California-valid license of the appropriate class, including any required endorsements. The distinction matters because remote advice is not the same as taking direct control of a vehicle.
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When the new rules take effect
SB 1246 is California Senate Bill 1246, Chapter 1021, approved September 30, 2026. Its new provisions become operative July 1, 2028. The DMV’s technician response-time guidelines are also due by that date, so the statute’s duties and the later guidance together determine how response performance will be assessed.
What the available reporting says about operators
TechCrunch reported on October 1, 2026, that the law followed incidents in California involving robotaxis that broke down, disrupted traffic, entered crime scenes or impeded responders. The report did not provide an incident count or rate, so it does not establish how frequently those events occur. Read TechCrunch’s report.
That report cited about 4,000 autonomous vehicles in Waymo’s U.S. commercial fleet and about 1,200 in the San Francisco Bay Area. These are reported figures from TechCrunch, not fleet totals stated in the law. The article named Waymo, Tesla and Zoox; it reported that Waymo and Zoox said they would comply, and that Tesla had publicly described remote operators able to take direct control of its robotaxis. The statute’s requirements apply according to its defined manufacturer and vehicle categories, rather than those company statements.
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