Colorado PUC keeps Waymo rule relief temporary as commissioners flag gaps in AV regulations

The Colorado Public Utilities Commission approved two years of relief from eight transportation rules for Waymo’s autonomous-vehicle operations, while commissioners said state regulations have not caught up with the technology.

The commission approved the petition in part during its Aug. 12 meeting. The meeting recording shows that Waymo sought relief involving daily vehicle-inspection reports, driver qualifications and files, medical-fitness documentation, hours of service, criminal-history checks, passenger-vehicle conditions, and operations and prearrangement.

Commissioners Eric Plant and Tony Gellman said Colorado’s statutory and regulatory framework was built around older technology and leaves a gap for autonomous vehicles. The comments came during the commission’s discussion of rules that assume a human driver.

Rule 6111, which concerns verification of hours of service, was not included because commission staff said it does not apply to Waymo’s current permit type. The commission approved the remaining relief as proposed by staff.

The authorization lasts two years from the effective date of the disposition. A Transportation staff member said an indefinite waiver would effectively make the exemption permanent without the formal rulemaking required for lasting changes. The reviewed public materials did not provide the effective date or a precise calendar expiration date.

The record describes the relief as applying to Waymo’s autonomous-vehicle operations in Colorado. It does not identify narrower geographic or service-area limits, additional Waymo-specific reporting duties, vehicle or passenger limits, or new safety-oversight conditions. Waymo remains responsible for other commission rules applicable to its permit type. The PUC’s transportation-rules framework includes the 6000, 6100 and 6200 series governing common and contract carriers.

Separately, the commission adopted temporary rules implementing House Bill 26-1326’s fingerprint-based criminal-history-check requirements. The rules require an individual who drives for a common-carrier certificate holder or contract-carrier permit holder to obtain a fingerprint-based criminal-history record check. The enacted law allows fingerprints to be taken by a local law-enforcement agency or a third party approved by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

The law covers drivers operating under specified credentials, including taxicab-service certificates, Part 2 contract-carrier permits, certain Part 3 limited-regulation-carrier permits and Part 7 large-market-taxicab permits. The temporary rules also revise vehicle-inspection timing requirements for certain limited-regulation and large-market-taxicab permits, according to the meeting presentation.

The record does not establish whether the fingerprint requirement applies to Waymo’s autonomous operations when no human driver is operating the vehicle. It also does not provide the temporary rules’ number, submission deadline, fingerprint-retention process, verification timeline or Waymo-specific implementation instructions.

Before the two-year relief expires, the commission could consider lasting changes through formal transportation rulemaking. House Bill 26-1326 requires the commission to study regulation of intrastate common and contract carriers, submit findings and recommendations to legislative committees by Nov. 1, 2027, and publish the study by Jan. 1, 2028. The PUC’s carrier information page provides existing fingerprint resources and carrier-regulation information.