SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill to require human drivers on board self-driving trucks, a measure that union leaders and truck drivers mentioned would save loads of hundreds of jobs in the state.
The law vetoed Friday evening would have banned self-driving trucks weighing greater than 10,000 kilos (4,536 kilograms) — starting from UPS supply vehicles to huge large rigs — from running on public roads until a human driving force is on board.
Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, head of the California Labor Federation, mentioned driverless trucks are unhealthy and known as Newsom’s veto stunning. She estimates that taking away drivers would value 1 / 4 million jobs in the state.
“We will not sit by as bureaucrats side with tech companies, 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,” Fletcher mentioned in a commentary overdue Friday.
In a commentary saying that he would now not signal the bill, the Democratic governor mentioned further legislation of autonomous trucks was once useless as a result of present regulations are enough.
Newsom pointed to 2012 law that permits the state Department of Motor Vehicles to paintings with the California Highway Patrol, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration “and others with relevant expertise to determine the regulations necessary for the safe operation of autonomous vehicles on public roads.”
Opponents of the bill argued self-driving automobiles which are already at the roads haven’t led to many critical injuries when put next to automobiles pushed by other people. Businesses say self-driving trucks would assist them shipping merchandise extra successfully.
Union leaders and drivers mentioned the bill would have helped cope with considerations about protection and shedding truck riding jobs to automation in the longer term.
The bill coasted throughout the Legislature with few lawmakers balloting towards it. It’s a part of ongoing debates in regards to the doable dangers of self-driving automobiles and the way workforces adapt to a brand new technology as firms deploy applied sciences to do paintings historically completed by humans.
Newsom, who usually enjoys sturdy toughen from exertions, confronted some power from inside of his management now not to signal it. His management’s Office of Business and Economic Development says it will push firms making self-driving applied sciences to transfer out-of-state.
The veto comes as the controversy over the way forward for autonomous automobiles heats up. In San Francisco, two robotaxi firms were given approval remaining month from state regulators to function in the town in any respect hours.
Last Tuesday in Sacramento, loads of truck drivers, union leaders and different supporters of the bill rallied on the state Capitol. Drivers chanted “sign that bill” as semi-trucks covered a side road in entrance of the Capitol. There are about 200,000 business truck drivers in California, in accordance to Teamsters officers.
post credit to Source link