Bryant Walker Smith (University of South Carolina – Joseph F. Rice School of Law; Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society) & Matthew Wansley (Yeshiva University – Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law) have posted Regulating Robotaxis (99 Southern California Law Review (forthcoming 2026)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
In several sunbelt cities, commercial robotaxi service has arrived. The leading robotaxi company is providing over 250,000 trips per week. The industry claims that robotaxis will save lives and provide convenient and affordable mobility. Critics counter that they will increase congestion, undermine transit, and subject the public to ubiquitous surveillance. We argue that the social impact of robotaxis depends critically on how they are regulated. We emphasize two points missing from the debate. First, some of the benefits of robotaxis may be political rather than technological—longstanding urbanist policy goals may become viable in a robotaxi world. Second, letting one private company dominate the transportation system risks monopoly abuse—and regulators can act now to prevent it.
In this Article, we provide a comprehensive plan to regulate robotaxis. Carefully crafted externality regulation can address pollution, congestion, wear-and-tear on infrastructure, and privacy risks while minimizing distortions in choices between travel modes. Regulators can promote competition by permitting open entry and banning lock-in contracts. And they can protect riders even if competition fails by mandating that fares be transparent and rider-neutral and requiring that robotaxi companies maintain a fleet sufficient for emergencies. Policymakers should take advantage of robotaxi deployment to redesign the transportation system—liberate land from the tyranny of parking, refocus transit investments on high-throughput routes, and expand mobility for people with low incomes and people with disabilities.
Highly recommended.