Boardwalk Chaos and a City Council Pushback on Driverless Cars
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A stolen Tesla entered the Pacific Beach boardwalk from Pacific Beach Drive on Monday afternoon, traveling north at high speed through an area crowded with pedestrians before striking one person, according to the San Diego Police Department. Officers had initially spotted the vehicle just after 12:30 p.m. on Mission Boulevard after its owner tracked it following a theft report. A supervisor terminated the pursuit because of the public-safety risk involved — the driver had already allegedly struck an SDG&E transformer during the chase. The victim was transported to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. Bystanders physically detained the driver until officers arrived. Police are investigating felony hit-and-run and believe the driver may have been impaired.
The incident arrived one day after the San Diego City Council unanimously passed a resolution urging Governor Gavin Newsom and the Legislature to restore local authority over driverless passenger services. The resolution also specifically calls on the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority to bar autonomous-vehicle operations at San Diego International Airport and asks for clearer authority for police and firefighters to manage empty autonomous vehicles during emergencies.
Waymo launched in San Diego on September 1st, placing the city roughly two weeks into operating driverless taxis on its streets. The Council's unanimous vote signals that concern about autonomous-vehicle oversight crosses political lines on the body. The resolution stops short of banning the service — it is a formal request to state and airport authorities — but it puts San Diego on record pushing back against California's practice of preempting local governments on autonomous-vehicle rules.
The sequence of events on Monday illustrates the tension the Council's resolution tries to address. A police pursuit was terminated — a decision made in the name of public safety — and a pedestrian was still struck on a crowded boardwalk. The resolution's language around managing 'empty autonomous vehicles during emergencies' acknowledges that when street-level chaos erupts, every vehicle in its path becomes part of the problem first responders must control.