The St. Paul City Council recently voted 7-0 to seek a wide-ranging study of how autonomous vehicles like Waymo might impact the city’s labor market, public transit systems and data privacy concerns, among other questions around the emerging industry. The goal is to eventually roll out a raft of new regulations before driverless cars roll through town.

On Oct. 14, Council President Rebecca Noecker presented a resolution calling for the St. Paul Planning Commission, through its Transportation Committee, “to study fully automated vehicles and develop recommendations for a St. Paul regulatory framework, including input from transportation workers, labor organizations, disability advocates, public safety representatives, state and federal automated vehicle policy experts, and other affected stakeholders.”

The resolution calls for the city to “establish these standards proactively, before fully automated vehicle companies begin commercial operation in the city.”

The council vote is the latest salvo of sorts in the growing political and licensing battles surrounding driverless “robotaxis” like Waymo, which have found a foothold in at least 15 metropolitan areas from San Francisco to Miami.

Waymo’s website lists another 17 markets on the horizon, including Minneapolis, where the city council recently voted 7-6 to require “human safety monitors” in each driverless car. The requirement would effectively undermine the cost savings of being able to operate without a driver. The vote was quickly vetoed, however, by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and the council was unable to muster the votes to override his decision.

A recent call to Waymo for comment on St. Paul’s resolution was not returned. The company has been crisscrossing the Twin Cities for months, mapping routes with human drivers at the helm.

Some advocates for driverless cars have called the industry inevitable, and pointed to potential benefits in terms of safer driving standards and fuel efficiencies compared to Uber, Lyft or traditional taxi services. Some female passengers have said they’ve had negative experiences with male drivers and would feel safer in a driverless car.

Blocking companies like Waymo from entering the St. Paul market “would repeat the error of protecting buggy-whip work after the automobile arrived or retaining elevator operators after elevators could operate automatically,” said Birch Hansen, a St. Paul resident and networking consulting engineer, in a letter to the city council.

Critics fear competition with traditional driver services — which are heavily staffed by immigrants in the Twin Cities — could be devastating.

In addition to Waymo, commercial autonomous vehicle companies include Tesla’s Cybercab, which operates exclusively, at least for now, in Austin, Texas, and Amazon’s Zoox, which is active in Las Vegas and San Francisco.

The St. Paul City Council resolution calls for the city’s study, at a minimum, to consider impacts on transportation workers, including potential job displacement and workforce transition, public safety and emergency response, disability access, traffic and parking compliance, impacts on pedestrians and cyclists “and other vulnerable users,” public transit, data storage, public transparency and reporting requirements on “relevant operating data,” and “the city’s authority to license, regulate, monitor, and enforce standards for commercial fully automated vehicle operations.”

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