In New York City, General Motors Co. has put on hold plans to begin testing in Manhattan because Mayor Bill de Blasio has expressed concerns about the technology’s safety, according to people familiar with the matter. GM said last year it would be the first company to start driverless-car testing in the city, starting in early 2018.
In Chicago, the city council’s transportation-committee chairman has vowed to block self-driving cars from operating in the nation’s third-largest metropolis, citing safety concerns and the potential for displacing taxi drivers and other jobs.
Even in Pittsburgh, a hotbed for autonomous-vehicle research and development, city officials have recently adopted more stringent requirements, demanding that driverless-car developers detail how a vehicle’s safety system works before granting permission to test on public roads.
A fatal crash in March, when an Uber Technologies Inc. self-driving test car stuck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Ariz., has fueled concerns over putting such prototypes on public roads, especially in big cities that tend to be more crowded, transportation officials say. Also, many city leaders say they want companies to show that the technology will provide wider social benefits, such as reducing congestion and helping low-income residents get around.
“It’s a lot of local politics that are difficult to navigate,” said Bradley Tusk, founder of Tusk Ventures, which works with startups on regulations and other political issues. “These are hard issues. You’re talking about small spaces that are very congested.”
Meanwhile, a Senate bill that aims to establish nationwide regulations for self-driving cars has stalled in Congress. Without federal direction, cities and states are left to act on their own, creating a patchwork of rules and red tape for companies plowing billions into the technology and hoping to eventually turn their testing into profitable ventures.
GM Chief Executive Mary Barra has called self-driving vehicles “the biggest opportunity since the creation of the internet.” GM, Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving car unit Waymo LLC and others are betting these services will create a market for customers wanting to hail a robotic car much like they do an Uber or Lyft Inc. ride. Some analysts estimate that market could eventually be valued at trillions of dollars.
GM and Waymo are among companies that have been testing in a handful of U.S. communities for years and are getting closer to launching services to paying customers. GM plans to introduce a new robot-taxi service next year, likely in San Francisco, where the auto maker has done the bulk of its testing. Waymo said Nov. 13 that it will begin offering rides in self-driving cars to Phoenix-area customers in the coming weeks.
Companies say that in some cities, they are working closely with officials to assuage concerns, but much more work is needed before a wider rollout is possible.
GM President Dan Ammann said in an interview that many cities and states continue to court its self-driving car unit GM Cruise LLC for testing and would welcome a robot-taxi service.
“Once we’ve demonstrated a track record for safety and a highly differentiated product with consumer acceptance, we believe local officials will see the benefit,” Mr. Ammann said. GM is aiming to deploy a commercial service by the end of 2019.
In New York, the Detroit auto maker initially allied with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who paved the way for driverless-car testing by championing a new law making it legal in the state. However, executives don’t want to move forward with their test program in Manhattan without Mr. de Blasio’s approval, even though it can meet the state’s testing requirements, the people familiar with the matter said.
A spokesman for the mayor confirmed he has concerns about the safety of “testing an unproven technology on the busy streets of lower Manhattan,” but declined to elaborate.
In a written statement, GM Cruise described New York City as a “complex regulatory environment” but declined to comment on its testing plans there. A spokeswoman for Gov. Cuomo didn’t reply to requests for comment.
City officials in Pittsburgh want companies to develop self-driving buses and shuttles rather than individual cars, worried that deploying large fleets of robot-taxis would only add to congestion, said Karina Ricks, Pittsburgh’s director of mobility and infrastructure.
“We’re starting to get more mature to say ‘At the end of the day, to what benefit is this technology to cities?’ ” Ms. Ricks said.
Smaller cities eager to attract new investment and be among early adopters of robot-car services have welcomed developers of self-driving cars. Waymo, for instance, has worked closely with Chandler, Ariz., where it is testing self-driving minivans. The city’s emergency response officials even helped the company prepare its vehicles to detect sirens in traffic. This month, Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG and auto supplier Robert Bosch GmbH announced plans to jointly pilot a robot-taxi program in San Jose, Calif.
Leaders in some big cities remain wary, though. San Francisco has attempted to limit the number of driverless cars that can be deployed as test robot taxis and put boundaries on where they can go, such as avoiding busy areas around sporting events. A group of transportation agencies representing San Francisco pressed a state commission last summer to adopt the tougher rules, saying that companies testing self-driving cars on California roads haven’t reached a level of safe operation, citing the Uber crash.
Chicago Alderman Anthony Beale, chairman of the city’s transportation committee, has been vocal in his opposition to autonomous-vehicle testing in the city. A bill pending in the Illinois legislature aims to make the test programs legal in the state.
“Autonomous vehicles scare me to death in Chicago, with all the alleys and potholes and traffic,” he said. “We need to put the brakes on this technology until they can come in and prove what they’re doing would ensure the well-being of our residents.”