San Francisco fire officials cite "cultural disconnect" with AV firms after DMV suspends permit

Deputy Chief Letro and Chief Janine Nicholson told the San Francisco Fire Commission on Oct. 25 that autonomous-vehicle operators have not fully accounted for the safety demands of emergency-response operations. Chief Nicholson said crews’ "autonomous permit [was] revoked for now by the DMV" after an accident that severely injured a person, and that department staff are meeting with companies "to go over incidents" so first-responder perspectives inform company changes.

Deputy Chief Letro characterized conversations with the companies as revealing a mismatch between engineering priorities and public-safety realities. "The car did what it was programmed to do. The car did what the engineers thought was appropriate for the incident, and, obviously, it was not," he said, adding that companies often return to software fixes for novel "edge cases" instead of adapting operations to emergency scenes.

Commissioners pressed for specifics. Commissioner Paula Collins asked whether Cruise and Waymo have changed their public positions following the most recent, high-profile incident at Fifth and Market; Letro said the crash is part of an ongoing police investigation and described the companies' responses as exhibiting a "disconnect culturally." He said the department has been compiling incident reports and providing operational feedback to companies and regulators.

Letro noted the department is one of the few municipal agencies systematically collecting AV incident data — "the AV incident report that was instituted by the chief" — and that it has recorded dozens of events. "The 87 events that we have recorded to now put us kind of front and center in this conversation," he said, adding that the department sends reports weekly to the Municipal Transportation Agency and is discussing broader data-sharing with the California DMV.

Commissioners and staff discussed possible next steps, including asking regulators about the duration and conditions of any permit suspensions and pressing companies to adopt measures that reduce interference with fire operations. President Steven Acasio and other commissioners said they expect the department to remain at the table as city, state and industry stakeholders negotiate technical and operational changes.

What’s next: department officials said they will continue interagency coordination with the police department and the DMV and keep the commission informed as the investigations and regulatory conversations proceed.