The future of driverless cars in Maryland is up on blocks after lawmakers left Annapolis without passing key legislation authorizing their use on state roads.

Waymo, the Silicon Valley company known for its self-driving taxi service, announced plans in December to expand operations into Baltimore. In recent months, its futuristic-looking vehicles adorned with cameras and sensors have been seen mapping out Charm City on the company’s software.

But launching passenger service requires building a physical hub for them and hiring staff to charge, clean and administer operations, costs that make little sense until Maryland provides the green light to operate.

They aren’t taking passengers yet because, in part, Maryland lacks a regulatory framework for driverless cars — currently humans are behind the wheel of the mapping vehicles. To operate as it does elsewhere, Waymo needs special permits to legally operate fully autonomously and carry passengers.

State officials have been developing rules for autonomous vehicles for roughly a decade, but Waymo’s announcement added urgency for 2026. Many assumed that lawmakers would pave the way for Waymo’s passenger service launch as early as later this year.

But they didn’t.

That doesn’t mean driverless cars and taxis are a no-go in Maryland, just that they’re staying parked a while longer.

“We’ll explore every available avenue to gain the certainty needed to invest millions of dollars in the jobs and infrastructure required to support our Baltimore operations,” Waymo spokesperson Ethan Teicher wrote in an email.

“We want to bring our technology to the state of Maryland, and we’ve heard from people across the state who want access to the safety and accessibility benefits of our ride-hailing service.”

Waymo has become a household name in cities like San Francisco and Phoenix, and is now carrying passengers in nearly a dozen U.S. cities. Baltimore is one of 18 additional North American cities listed as coming soon.

The proposed bill received broad support, including from the tech industry and advocates for road safety. Pushback came from some union and labor leaders, who questioned the safety record of autonomous vehicles and said they would take jobs away from professional drivers.

Perhaps the strongest support of the bill came from the Maryland chapter of the National Federation of the Blind.

“We are, frankly, devastated,” said Ronza Othman, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland.

Othman said that she and scores of others who are blind face rampant discrimination from rideshare drivers who at times refuse to take them. Automated vehicles would provide a crucial link to jobs and health care for some of the most vulnerable in her community, she said.

Dozens of states, including nearby Pennsylvania and West Virginia, have passed laws for autonomous vehicles, Sen. Sara Love, a Montgomery County Democrat and the bill’s lead sponsor, said at a March hearing.

“We hear lots of bills in this committee about cameras to address drivers who are speeding, rolling stop signs and driving distracted,” Love told the Judicial Proceedings Committee. “An autonomous vehicle doesn’t do any of that, nor does it drive drunk, get tired or respond emotionally to other drivers’ conduct. It doesn’t just quickly check a text.”

Many transportation experts agree that autonomous vehicles’ safety records are cleaner than those of human drivers.

Across the country, tens of thousands of people die from automobile crashes every year, driven by human errors like speeding and alcohol impairment. Last year, 478 people died on Maryland’s roads, including 96 pedestrians. Of the total deaths, 36% involved impaired driving.

Anthony Perez, a policy manager for Waymo, said that people traveling in their vehicles are 10 times less likely to be involved in a crash causing serious injuries than in a car driven by a person.

Companies like Waymo compete directly with rideshare operators like Uber and Lyft, which provide low-barrier gig work to people who need the flexibility or want to earn some extra cash. For some who lose jobs, including people furloughed from the federal government, picking up rides on those apps can be a salve for their bank accounts.

Opposition to autonomous vehicles goes beyond just rideshare workers, though, bringing in drivers of other commercial vehicles who fear a growing reliance on artificial intelligence could threaten their jobs.

Albert York, a truck driver of 33 years, said at the March hearing that he’s never had a serious accident or hurt anyone and questioned Waymo’s safety record.

“I’ve pulled people out of burning cars, I’ve saved lives as a trucker,” he said. “You’re not gonna get that from an automated vehicle.”

Othman said that data from other cities shows that there’s enough work out there for human drivers and autonomous vehicles to peacefully coexist, and that advocates will continue to work with the labor community to come to a resolution.

“We are tenacious,” she said. “We will not stop until we get this across the finish line.”

While Maryland works out the kinks, Waymo is quickly expanding into other cities. So far in 2026, it has launched operations in Dallas and Nashville less than a year after announcing those expansions. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are coming after Pennsylvania adopted its autonomous vehicle framework in 2024, as are Boston and Washington, D.C.