Waymo-backed group begins New York campaign for driverless cars

A Better Road Forward, a Waymo-backed advocacy group, has begun a campaign to build support for self-driving cars in New York, where no company is approved to operate a driverless service. The group launched its first television advertisement aimed at persuading both voters and policymakers, and plans community meetings, a testimonial website and advertising.

The campaign comes after Gov. Kathy Hochul removed a proposal to legalize limited driverless pilots from her budget in February, before legislators formally considered it. The proposed framework would have allowed municipalities including Buffalo and Albany to opt into pilots, with participating companies paying a $1 million fee.

A Better Road Forward is a 501(c)(4) that describes itself as a statewide coalition and presents its work as education and community engagement. Waymo provides the organization with funding, advice and support, while saying the coalition's leaders and members speak for themselves.

Basil Seggos, the former head of the State Department of Environmental Conservation, chairs the advisory board. Its members also include former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, former Bronx Assembly member Kenny Burgos, former state DMV commissioner Mark Schroeder, Rev. Mark Blue of the Buffalo NAACP and Julie Samuels of Tech:NYC.

The effort seeks a statewide policy framework that would allow autonomous-vehicle companies to expand beyond driver-monitored testing in New York City and Buffalo. Waymo's permit for human-operated testing in New York City has expired, and its pilot lapsed in March, although its vehicles continued operating in the city with a human driver to patrol streets and gather data.

The political opposition that helped sink Hochul's proposal included labor unions, safety advocates and the Uber-backed Independent Drivers Guild. Bronx Assembly Member Karines Reyes and State Senator Luis Sepulveda introduced legislation that would ban robotaxis outright. Waymo spent about $1.1 million on lobbying in the first half of the year.

The group enters a debate that also includes safety concerns. An anti-robotaxi report withdrew a major part of its analysis after comparing New York City's narrow critical-injury measure with Waymo's broader serious-injury category. Its corrected comparison put Waymo's nationwide reported injury-crash rate at 0.712 per million miles, against 1.871 for New York City taxis and for-hire vehicles, although its comparison involving deaths or serious injuries rested on three Waymo-involved crashes nationwide.

New York's existing DMV permit system allows autonomous-vehicle demonstrations and tests, but every vehicle listed on an application must have a licensed driver behind the wheel. Applicants must report permitted demonstrations or tests to the DMV commissioner by March 1, 2027, and the testing law is scheduled to expire on April 1, 2028.