Union and faith leaders gathered outside the John Wilson Building in Northwest on Tuesday to protest a D.C. Council bill that would legalize robotaxis.
The protesters who rallied at the offices of D.C. Council and the mayor are concerned that if it is passed and a commercial autonomous vehicles program is created within the District Department of Transportation, rideshare drivers and others will lose out.
“Driving is not a gig; it’s a primary livelihood for thousands across the District,” rideshare driver Ali Adamali told WTTG-TV.
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The bill, titled the Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Authorization Amendment Act of 2026, was introduced in July by Council members Charles Allen of Ward 6, Brooke Pinto of Ward 2 and Matthew Frumin of Ward 3, all Democrats. The D.C. Council has not yet voted on the bill, and no vote has been scheduled.
Autumn Weintraub, executive director of the App Drivers Union associated with the 32BJ branch of the Service Employees International Union, said in a statement that “we support new technology that strengthens public services, creates good union jobs, and advances a just transportation system, but that’s not what this bill does.”
“Council is opening the floodgates to tech giants who will cause thousands of D.C. area residents to lose their jobs in middle of an unemployment and affordability crisis,” she said.
Mr. Allen says the bill addresses those concerns, telling WJLA-TV that “the legislation is trying to take all those different things into consideration, making sure there’s guardrails on how this technology rolls out.”
“In particular, it has a new fund that was created — and no other jurisdiction has this — where dollars are literally set aside to help workers who may be facing some sort of displacement,” he said.
One of the religious leaders at the rally expressed concern about the legal status of the robotaxis.
“Technology should serve people, not replace people. When the driver breaks the law there is a name, there is a face. Someone to answer to the grieving families. But when a machine does it, who answers?” National Baptist Convention President Boise Kimber told WRC-TV.
Waymo, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet, has been testing its robotaxis in the District for over two years, according to WJLA-TV.
In a statement to WTTG-TV, the company said that “our goal is to help the District make roads safer for everyone, and we’ve spent years testing and investing in the District.”
Company officials say the customer demand for Waymo robotaxis already exists in the city.
Matthew Walsh, who works on state and local public policy in the eastern U.S. for Waymo, told WRC-TV that “you can talk to people around this city. They’ve seen our vehicles for two years. They want to get in. Every time I’m driving around, I have people that come up to the car, ’When am I going to be able to use Waymo?’”
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