A California lawmaker, State Sen. David Cortese, has proposed a bill to require robotaxis like Google's Waymo to hire more human operators in case the system malfunctions, similar to what happened during a recent blackout in San Francisco. The bill, which Waymo has described as potentially crippling, would require companies to hire remote drivers and assistants based in the US and licensed in California, and mandate a staffing ratio of one human for every three vehicles. It also requires a trained autonomous-vehicle worker to arrive on scene within 10 minutes if called, and each robotaxi would require a manual override option to allow public-safety officials to take over. However, critics argue that the bill is overkill and already requires companies to continuously monitor each autonomous vehicle.