San Francisco to require permits for companies testing ideas in public

San Francisco legislators have had it with the tech industry’s wacky ideas spilling onto the streets.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors passed legislation that aims to prevent tech companies from using the city as a test ground.

Essentially, tech companies won’t just be able to drop a new product into the world and see what happens — without getting government approval first. 

That’s in contrast to how companies like Uber and Airbnb have operated in the past. E-scooter companies like Bird are especially notorious for letting their products loose on street without considering the consequences. Governments have been struggling to keep up with regulating the scooters ever since.

To prevent similar madness, the legislation, introduced by Supervisor Norman Yee, will establish a new government organization called the Office of Emerging Technology. Tech companies will have to attain permits through the office before they unleash their creations on the city. That will apply to transportation (like e-scooters), delivery drones and robots, and whatever else entrepreneurs want to test in public. 

The legislation does not specify exactly what kind of technology the office will govern; instead, it’s about the “where.” Anything that impacts “roads, sidewalks, and public spaces” will be subject to oversight, according to a legislative FAQ from Supervisor Yee’s office. 

There’s also not a lot of detail yet about what will help get a project rubber stamped. But if a project demonstrates “net public good,” it will have a better chance.

The office isn’t just assuming that tech companies will follow the new guidelines. Companies that drop products like they’re hot into the city without proper permitting will be subject to increasingly severe fines.

“We don’t want to start off in a punitive way,” Ivy Lee, an aide to Norman Yee, told Mashable. However, “there’s an escalating ladder of fines that are part of the legislation.” 

Various fines could reach $1,600, but the office is still working out the exact scale, and how it would be applied. (For example, would violations be levied based on the number of offending objects, or would a single company be subject to a single fine?)

According to the AP, tech and business leaders are not stoked. But Lee said that many tech companies worked with Yee’s office on the legislation to make sure all parties could comply.