Waymo begins testing in Chicago as bill seeks to legalize autonomous
vehicles
[April 08, 2026]
By Jacques Abou-Rizk and Medill Illinois News Bureau
CHICAGO – In downtown Chicago, people have been spotting Google’s Waymo
automated vehicles testing and mapping the Windy City’s streets. For
now, the autonomous vehicles must be driven by a human, as the industry
seeks the endorsement of state lawmakers.
For the last year, legislators in Springfield have been trying to work
through a variety of issues raised by skeptics of the autonomous
vehicles, known as AVs. Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, said AV legislation
has a long road ahead to address constituent concerns over safety,
insurance and job losses for rideshare and cab drivers.
In January, he introduced the Autonomous Vehicle Pilot Project Act,
which would open counties in Illinois with over 1 million residents, as
well as the counties of Sangamon, Madison, St. Clair, and Monroe, to
automated commercial vehicles. But the bill has since been held up in
the Rules Committee, an early step in the process that means it’s far
from passage, especially in the current legislative session. Other bills
supporting the industry also have yet to get the necessary support.
While Waymo has started testing its vehicles with safety drivers in
Chicago, the company has not yet announced plans to bring the robotaxis
to counties other than Cook, according to Waymo spokesperson Chris
Bonelli.
Automated Vehicle legislation in Illinois
Waymo only fully operates in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia and
Texas — warm weather states where concerns about handling icy conditions
are not as big an issue.
The company has faced significant questions over the safety of its
vehicles and fully automated taxis. A subsidiary of Alphabet, Waymo is
under multiple federal investigations for traffic violations, including
illegally passing stopped school buses. Company vehicles have also made
headlines for blocking emergency vehicles and hitting a child near an
elementary school.
In a statement, Bonelli said Waymo is committed to “continuous
improvement,” adding, “While rare incidents will occur over the more
than four million miles we drive every week, our entire fleet can learn
from these events and continue to make our roads safer.”
According to company data, Waymo vehicles are involved in 92% fewer
crashes with serious injuries compared to an average human driver in the
same city.
Among some legislators and observers, it seems a matter of time before
legislative compromises eventually produce a bill that will pass to
allow AVs to operate without the safety drivers.
Rep. Brad Stephens, a Republican who is also the mayor of suburban
Rosemont, introduced his own AV bill last Spring. He said he sees a
bright future for AVs in Illinois, but he acknowledged that it might not
pass this session.
“It’s going to be a challenging two-and-a-half months with a lot of
other issues,” Stephens said.
‘Still in the negotiation phase’
P.S. Sriraj, director of the Urban Transportation Center at University
of Illinois Chicago, outlined a host of challenges for AV safety in the
state, but he also said he believes the vehicles eventually will become
part of life here.
State officials, he said, should look for ways to implement new
automations responsibly.
The public benefit of AVs includes widening options for people who live
in areas where there are few rideshare drivers or taxis. People with
mental or physical disabilities around the state also could greatly
benefit from AVs.
“All of the mobility needs of a population are so diverse that these
types of technological advancements could play a role,” Sriraj said.
But, like others, he said he understands there are real concerns about
safety, especially if AVs are to be allowed in smaller towns and
counties.
“If the infrastructure is not set up to support this kind of a
technology, for example, if there is no lane marking visible, at least
to the naked eye, on a rural road, then what will happen to the
technology?” he said.
Labor lobbyist groups are at the forefront of opposition to Waymo,
arguing that automation will threaten driver and laborer jobs.
Ronnie Gonzalez, a representative of the International Association of
Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said it’s vital that labor is part of
the conversation before any legislation is passed.
“In labor, throughout the industrial revolution, we’ve been watching
technology replace workers year after year, and it’s only sped up in the
recent decade,” Gonzalez said. “The realization is it’s going to happen,
so having a seat at the table lobbying for legislation that implements
the use of autonomous vehicles responsibly, that is mindful of workers,
mindful of safety, is what labor is pushing for.”
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A Waymo vehicle drives through Chicago’s Near North Side on March 20
as the company begins testing and mapping the city. (Medill Illinois
News Bureau photo by Georgia Epiphaniou)
His association is part of the Illinois Drivers Alliance, a coalition of
thousands of rideshare drivers across the state fighting for
unionization. He said he hopes to engage in conversations with Buckner
about specifics in the bill.
“We are still in the negotiation phase,’’ Buckner said, “walking and
talking through what the issues may be, what the concerns may be, and
trying to find a way to arrive at a version of this bill that works for
everybody.”
‘On a bigger scale than just driverless taxis’
Across labor unions, there is agreement that AVs could threaten some of
the estimated 100,000 rideshare drivers. Marc Poulos, executive director
of labor management operations at the International Union of Operating
Engineers Local 150, said Waymo operations are just a step toward
further automation of labor jobs.
“We need to be thinking of this on a bigger scale than just driverless
taxis,” he said. “Meaning it can impact whole industries like operating
engineers and Teamsters and a whole bunch of others. Every time we just
move to a technological advancement, we need to take into consideration,
what does that mean to the overall economy?”
Sriraj said plans must be made to counteract any impact on the labor
market: “If jobs are going to be reinvented, people will have to be
retrained, and the corrective actions will always happen within society
on their own,” he said.
“At least until the 1970s, elevators had an elevator operator, and then
people became accustomed to just punching a button and riding in an
elevator on their own,” he said. “Now there is no elevator operator job
anywhere to be found. Did that mean that that section of population
actually starved to death?”
Resistance to AVs in Illinois also includes two groups with differing
constituents but similar concerns about safety.
Safety, insurance concerns
Tim Cavanagh, the president of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association,
has spoken out about the need for requirements that AV operators have
adequate insurance to cover any injuries or damage involving the cars.
“The current legislation doesn’t speak to financial responsibility,”
Cavanagh said. “All it talks about is that they shall have at least the
minimum requirement of insurance coverage.”
But, he said, the minimums should be far higher for AVs, and the
well-financed companies behind them, than they are for individuals.
Josh Witkowski, the president of the Illinois motorcyclist rights
organization ABATE, also has voiced strong opposition to AV deployment
in the state because of the risk he says they pose to motorcycles.
He also points to icy conditions and low visibility in Illinois, as well
as poorly lit roads and street markings downstate as challenges for AV
technology, which relies on cameras and sensors to safely navigate
roadways.
In response to weather concerns, Bonelli said Waymo already serves in
cities that receive annual snow with freezing temperatures.
“The Waymo Driver has proven it can generalize to new cities, and we’ll
continue to validate our performance for harsh winter weather
conditions, such as those we’ll experience in Chicago,” Bonelli said.
He added, “Waymo has invested in weather testing since its earliest days
as Google’s Self-Driving Car Project, and we’ve regularly tested in
various conditions from coast to coast, building our technology for
all-season operations.”
The past two winters, Bonelli said, Waymo has tested and validated its
systems in multiple winter markets, including Detroit, New York City and
Buffalo.
Witkowski said more work needs to be done to ensure a proper rollout of
AVs, with an oversight panel and publicly available data.
Jacques Abou-Rizk is a graduate student in journalism
with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media
and Integrated Marketing Communications, and is a fellow in its
Medill Illinois News Bureau working in partnership with Capitol News
Illinois.
Capitol News Illinois is a
nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state
government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is
funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R.
McCormick Foundation.
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