The resolution was introduced by Supervisor Ray Mueller, who said officials should move quickly to understand the technology and create safeguards.
"I think what you need to do is you need to go ahead and look at the technologies that's coming, understand what pitfalls may be there, and then try to go and put in a framework to address them as quickly as you can so it doesn't get out of control," Mueller said.
The measure would require permits for the use of commercial humanoid robots and allow the county to collect fees that could be used for specialized firefighting equipment.
"It allows us to address public safety from a fire perspective," Mueller said.
Mueller cited an increase in lithium-ion battery fires involving e-bikes, laptops and cars. He said the county may need special equipment to respond to fires involving robots.
"And then we could collect fees from those to go ahead and aggregate them to provide the special firefighting equipment necessary in order to respond to these fires," Mueller said.
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The resolution would also allow the county to track companies and data related to job losses.
"It allows us to keep track of bad companies and allows us keep track of data so that we can go ahead and keep track a job losses," Mueller said.
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The proposal drew support from labor and artificial intelligence safety advocates.
"It's important to have guardrails because this technology is very new," said Julie Lind of the San Mateo County Central Labor Council. "We want to make sure the future of work remains centered in workers."
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Holly Elmore, executive director of Pause AI, said safeguards are necessary but may not anticipate every potential problem.
"It's great that San Mateo County is taking the possibility of dangers and unexpected things so seriously," Elmore said. "But it's hard to anticipate enough what things could go wrong. So that's why we advocate at Pause AI for a pause on frontier development."
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Community members expressed mixed views about the emerging technology. One person said humanoid robots appeared likely to become part of everyday life, while another said they were uncomfortable with the possibility of losing a job to one.
Supporters said the resolution is intended to create oversight as humanoid robots move closer to commercial use.