Rep. Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.) on Tuesday introduced the AV Emergency Response Coordination Act, a bill directing federal regulators to set minimum national safety standards for autonomous vehicle (AV) operators, with specific requirements for how those companies coordinate with emergency responders. TechCrunch

The legislation was announced at a press conference in San Francisco, where Mayor Daniel Lurie, Fire Chief Dean Crispen, and Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, all spoke in support. The venue and speaker lineup point to a bill rooted in the day-to-day friction between AV fleets and municipal first responders — a tension that has been especially visible in San Francisco's dense urban environment.

The bill directs the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to develop minimum national emergency response standards for AV operators. It also proposes two concrete operational requirements. First, AV companies would need to provide clear emergency protocols for first responders. Second, they would have to set up a 24-hour hotline giving public officials direct access to company representatives who can remotely intervene, redirect, or shut down a vehicle during an incident.

A third provision would let public officials geofence autonomous vehicles — that is, use GPS-based virtual boundaries to restrict where AVs can operate during emergencies or ongoing safety hazards. AV companies already use geofencing internally to define where their vehicles are allowed to drive; the bill would extend a version of that same control to local authorities during emergency conditions, a capability they currently lack under any standardized federal framework.

The bill addresses a gap that has existed since AV testing and deployment began scaling in U.S. cities. NHTSA's current approach to autonomous vehicles has focused primarily on reporting requirements and voluntary guidance rather than binding operational standards for emergency coordination. State and local governments have cobbled together their own approaches, but there is no national baseline governing how AV companies must interact with first responders during incidents.

San Francisco has been a focal point for these issues. The fire chief's presence at the bill's unveiling reflects the degree to which local emergency services have encountered situations where AV behavior during active incidents created complications for response operations. The bill would establish a federal floor that applies nationally, not just in the cities where AV deployment is already concentrated.

The involvement of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a long-standing consumer safety organization, places the bill within a broader coalition that includes both municipal operations and consumer protection perspectives. Mayor Lurie's participation signals city-level political support from a jurisdiction with direct, ongoing experience running commercial AV deployment at scale.

The bill remains a proposal at this stage. It would need to pass through the House and Senate and be signed into law before any of its provisions take effect, and NHTSA would then need to undertake a rulemaking process to develop the specific standards the bill envisions. If the bill advances, that timeline would likely span multiple years from introduction to implemented regulation.

The broader context here is one of regulation catching up to technology that is already operating on public streets. For AV operators, the bill signals that the period of setting their own emergency protocols may be winding down, in favor of federally mandated minimums with direct local enforcement mechanisms. Whether that ultimately produces safer streets or simply adds a compliance layer is something the rulemaking process will have to sort out.