TWU Tech Newsletter: The Importance of Local Control Over AVs

This is the monthly edition of the Transport Workers Union’s Transportation Technology Newsletter. We aim to inform and educate our members, the labor movement, the public and policymakers about developments in transportation technology – and what the TWU is doing to ensure that new technology doesn’t undermine safety or harm the livelihoods of hard-working blue-collar workers. For suggestions and questions, please email ewytkind@gmail.com or adaugherty@twu.org.

ITEM OF THE MONTH

CHECKING BIG TECH: The Transport Workers Union is actively working to help pass a bill in California, SB 915, that would give local governments the ability to block autonomous vehicles from operating on their roadways. The bill is set for a California Senate hearing.

Why does it matter? SB 915 would prevent the deployment of autonomous vehicles unless a local government authorizes it. Currently, the California Department of Motor Vehicles and the California Public Utilities Commission have the power to greenlight AV use. The bill adds much-needed safeguards by finally including the voice of local officials and community members to the AV approval process. This common-sense solution adds a critical voice to those concerned about AVs safely operating in their neighborhoods and on their roadways.

“Local leaders – who answer to voters – know that putting autonomous vehicles on the roads can cause all sorts of safety problems,” said TWU International President John Samuelsen. “Unelected bureaucrats shouldn’t have the power to dramatically change our roadways and transit systems, and this bill critically gives communities control over their own streets.”

The TWU has written a letter of support for the bill and is actively lobbying elected officials in Sacramento to help pass it. TWU California State Conference Chairperson Chris Avila wrote in the letter that TWU transit operators in San Francisco “have witnessed firsthand the threats posed by haphazard AV deployment on city roadways.”

“It is imperative that local leaders, people who know their communities best, have the power to determine the safety of their roads,” said TWU International Administrative Vice President Curtis Tate. “Autonomous vehicles are not ready for prime time and local officials can look to San Francisco as a cautionary tale for AV deployment gone wrong.”

WHAT ELSE IS COOKING

LA EXPANSION: Passing SB 915 is even more important now that Waymo has expanded its driverless robotaxi service in Los Angeles, according to the Associated Press. The expansion was greenlit by the California Public Utilities Commission despite repeated safety concerns from city transportation officials. Waymo wasn’t involved in the Cruise-operated robotaxi in San Francisco that dragged a pedestrian for 20 feet but the sudden stops and not-ready-for-primetime tech is a major worry.

The Waymo rides are free for now but will soon transition to a paid service. In a letter last year to the Public Utilities Commission, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass wrote she has “serious concerns” with the Commission’s approval of Waymo without local input.

“A decision to allow AVs to operate in the City of Los Angeles without local regulation, and without a well-developed and collaborative deployment plan, will likely have adverse impacts on the residents of Los Angeles,” Bass wrote.

JUST SAY NO TO AUTONOMOUS TRAIN BOONDOGGLE: The TWU is taking aim at a petition by Georgia Central Railway and Heart of Georgia Railroad asking the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to waive current rail safety rules and greenlight testing of an unproven, fully autonomous train vehicle.

In urging the FRA to deny the petition, TWU Railroad Director John Feltz, called the applicants’ request “extreme” and an “excessive use of the exemption and waiver process.” Feltz also accused the two railroads of attempting to “test unproven automated technology while sidestepping the highly skilled workers we represent, evading requirements for true data transparency, and avoiding regulatory requirements that have long been the cornerstone of rail safety.”

“We are deeply concerned that under this petition qualified mechanical inspectors (QMIs) would not be relied upon to ensure this automated train vehicle is safe,” Feltz wrote. “Simply because a rail tech manufacturer and its railroad partners claim that the work performed by QMIs under federal rail safety regulations isn’t needed in this testing doesn’t mean it is true or that the FRA should sanction this unsafe practice.”

GIANT MISTAKE: Cruise’s woes in San Francisco keep coming. After Cruise saw its San Francisco operations suspended, General Motors dropped Cruise’s jersey sponsorship of the San Francisco Giants ahead of Opening Day, Auto Blog reports. A sleeve patch on the Giants’ jerseys will now carry the Chevrolet logo instead of Cruise, a GM subsidiary.

TESLA’S PHONY “AUTOPILOT” GETS FAILING GRADE: A prominent highway safety group has slapped a “poor” rating on Tesla’s highly criticized and dangerous “Autopilot” feature that has been involved in several accidents and has attracted the scorn of federal transportation safety officials in the wake of autopilot accidents.

From the archives: Concerns about automation go back decades. In the TWU vault we found a flyer for an AFL-CIO television special from 1964 that aired on NBC. The special, titled “Automation and You” deals with “the human impact of automation – particularly in terms of the concept of work as a social good.”