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Big tech companies want to put big, driverless trucks on the road, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom is ready to help them reach that goal. Now the Democratic mainstay is taking a beating from unions who say he’s allowed unsafe 10,000+-pound vehicles onto the road without drivers.
Last Friday, Newsom vetoed legislation that would have outright banned any self-driving truck weighing more than 10,000 pounds that didn‘t have a driver. The proposed legislation, A.B. 316, would have prevented the California Department of Motor Vehicles and Highway Patrol from granting permits for any of these large AVs until 2029. The bipartisan bill was promoted as a win by the teamsters union, up until Friday’s surprise veto from Newsom.
In his veto message, the California governor argued that A.B. 316 was “unnecessary” as the state agencies already have enough resources to determine how safe autonomous vehicles were on public roads. As far as the labor issue, Newsom said his administration was working to start a process of creating a team to review how they could mitigate potential impacts on truck drivers as autonomous vehicles take their jobs.
On Tuesday, Lindsay Dougherty—who heads up the Teamster Local 399 in Los Angeles—didn’t mince words about her antipathy towards Newsom. She told an assembled crowd at the United Auto Workers picket line that Newsom “screwed every truck driver in the state of California allowing driverless semi-trucks on the road… without a driver.”
Dougherty made a name for herself for her no fucks given, union-strong attitude during the recently successful writers’ strike. In an interview with Vanity Fair, she emphasized that while writers have their frustrations with generative AI, “ we have autonomous vehicles, which is very much a part of this conversation.” Her Tuesday comments further decried the dangers of autonomous heavy vehicles and blamed the governor for capitulating to big tech. She said Newsom has “got to go too,” adding “If they fuck with us, we’re going to get rid of them.”
In an email to Gizmodo, Newsom’s office declined to comment beyond the governor’s original veto message.
AP reported that Newsom faced internal pressures from his own administration not to sign the bill over concerns it would push big tech out of California. Still, you can bet the AV industry was thrilled by Newsom’s decision. In a statement, Jeff Farrah—the executive director of the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association—commended Newsom and said they would continue to work with California’s DMV and highway patrol to evaluate driverless tech.
The can-kicking wasn’t sitting well with Teamsters general president Sean O’Brien who wrote last weekend: “Any politician who turns their back on workers to curry campaign contributions from Corporate America and Big Tech better square up.”
The Teamsters have also received support from other labor groups. At the time, California Labor Federation head Lorena Gonzalez reiterated the group’s stance that driverless trucks are “dangerous” and that AVs would put truck drivers out of a job. She further said “We will not sit by as bureaucrats side with tech companies [while] trading our safety and jobs for increased corporate profits. We will continue to fight to make sure that robots do not replace human drivers and that technology is not used to destroy good jobs.”
California is becoming a hub for driverless vehicles despite many local municipalities’ protests. Last month, the California Public Utilities Commission voted to allow self-driving taxis from Google’s Waymo and General Motors’ Cruise out at all times of the day in San Francisco without a safety driver. City officials begged the commission to halt that autonomous vehicle expansion, though so far the decision has remained in effect. This is despite a rash of new reports of the vehicles spectacularly failing, such as one that got stuck in wet cement. Another Cruise robotaxi hit a fire truck, resulting in the company reducing its number of vehicles on the road by half.
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