Where the law stands

IIHS lists Rhode Island as having no AV testing or deployment statute. The 2016 autonomous-vehicle bill (S 2514) did not become law. Little Roady ran only because a human attendant stayed in the vehicle. Personal delivery device bills in 2020–2022 also did not become law. There is no current enacted framework for insurance, police interaction, or winter operating rules. Details: actions index.

1. State legislators

You have one state senator and one state representative. The official lookup is the Secretary of State’s Voter Information Center. Enter your street address and look for “Senator in General Assembly” and “Representative in General Assembly.”

Find your elected officials (vote.sos.ri.gov)

That site is the Rhode Island Department of State voter tool. From some automated clients it shows a Cloudflare check; in a normal browser it is the state’s “Find Your Elected Officials” page. If it misbehaves, use the Assembly directories: Senate roster · House roster (both returned a normal page when we checked on 14 November 2026).

Mail and office: Rhode Island State House, 82 Smith Street, Providence, RI 02903. Switchboard: (401) 222-2466 is commonly listed for the building; prefer the phone and email on your legislator’s official page.

A short message you can copy

I am a Rhode Island constituent. I want the General Assembly to take up autonomous vehicle and robotaxi policy based on published safety data (including NHTSA crash reports and independent-or-peer-reviewed rate studies) and on Rhode Island’s own crash, access, and transit numbers. I am not asking you to rubber-stamp any company. I am asking you to write clear rules for testing and possible deployment: winter operations, insurance and liability, data and privacy, worker impacts, and how this fits with RIPTA. Rhode Island has no AV statute today. Neighboring states already have testing frameworks. Please look at riforav.org for the sources.

Edit it. A specific street, disability, night-shift, or tourism example from your life is more useful than this template.

2. City and town councils

Robotaxis, if they come, will use local streets, curb space, and police time. Councils and mayors do not pass statewide AV law, but they do control local traffic rules, curb management, and whether to invite or resist a pilot. Rhode Island has 39 cities and towns.

• Secretary of State, city and town contacts: Open Government Center (includes city/town government listings).
• Open meetings notices: opengov.sos.ri.gov — search your council, read the agenda, show up or write.
• Providence City Council — Little Roady already used Providence streets; the city’s transportation page listed the shuttle as part of local transit.
• City of Newport — tourism and downtown circulation; we found no AV-specific council resolution to cite.
• City of Warwick — among the higher 2025 crash and fatality counts in RIDOT Crash Facts; we found no AV-specific council resolution to cite.

Ask councils for: a public hearing before any AV pilot; winter and school-zone conditions in writing; curb and bus-stop rules so robotaxis do not block RIPTA; and a requirement that crash and disengagement data be shared with the city, not only kept by the vendor.

3. State agencies

RIDOT ran Little Roady and publishes Crash Facts. The Division of Motor Vehicles would likely handle any future registration or insurance proof, as it would have under the 2016 bill. Write them as well if you want the next pilot’s contract to require public data.