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
WAYMO PAUSED: New York City’s Department of Transportation declined to renew permits issued last year to Waymo for autonomous vehicle testing after they expired at the end of March, according to The City. The TWU called for NYC officials to stop autonomous testing in recent months.
“The Waymo-ization of NYC would be dangerous on many levels,” said TWU International President John Samuelsen. “Automated Waymos across the country have blocked first responders, endangered children entering and exiting school buses, and completely stopped functioning during a recent power outage in San Francisco. All of these problems would be exponentially magnified in New York City. Automated vehicles are not ready for prime time and Mayor Mamdani is standing up for working New Yorkers by denying Waymo’s ability to operate autonomously in NYC.”
Waymo was previously operating eight autonomous vehicles with human safety drivers in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn. The permit expiration comes a month after Gov. Kathy Hochul walked back her earlier proposal to allow some autonomous vehicles to operate outside of New York City, a move that Samuelsen said is a “last-ditch attempt at saving face” with organized labor.
“The permit expiration is a victory for the TWU and for blue-collar New Yorkers, but Waymo has made it clear from their lobbying dollars and aggressive expansion plans they are not going anywhere,” said TWU Administrative Vice President Curtis Tate. “Unions must remain vigilant and keep fighting the job threats that autonomous vehicles pose.”
HISTORY OF FIGHTING AUTOMATION: TWU Local 100 President John Chiarello was on hand at a recent meeting in Brooklyn to discuss the dangers of automation, part of an effort reported by City and State. In the City and State story, Samuelsen noted that robotaxis are a slippery slope and that the TWU has fought for years against automation attempts on the New York City subway system.
“The 1960s version of Abundance bros was saying, ‘It’s inevitable that there will be fully automated operation of the New York City subway,’” Samuelsen told City and State. “Forward flash 60 freaking years, and there’s still a two-person train crew on the subway cars in New York City. That’s because of the union.”
WHAT ELSE IS COOKING
CABLESS TRUCKS IN TEXAS: The autonomous truck manufacturer Einride is developing a freight corridor on public roads between Austin and San Antonio, Trucking Dive reports, with the company telling Fox 7 Austin they plan to begin testing by the end of the year. Einride’s trucks differ from other autonomous trucks on the road because they are designed without a cab that allows a human to operate the vehicle.
“Autonomous trucking companies are doing everything in their power to cut labor costs and have a track record of cutting corners on safety,” Samuelsen said. “Einride’s trucks are particularly concerning because they do not have space for a human operator in the cab and would require dozens of exemptions from federal safety laws to operate legally. All of the robotrucking companies that currently operate in Texas have the ability for a human to be on board. It is not safe to operate massive trucks on busy highways when the only solution for problems that arise is someone sitting at a computer.”
MASS OPPOSITION: A new poll of Massachusetts voters shows overwhelming opposition to autonomous vehicles in the state and city of Boston, with 73 percent of statewide voters and 67 percent of Bostonians opposing the operation of autonomous vehicles.
The poll, conducted by Workbench Strategy, showed even stronger support for opposing driverless heavy duty trucks, with 86 percent opposing their operation in Massachusetts.
WAYMO PARTNERS WITH LYFT: TechCrunch reports that Waymo is partnering with Lyft in Nashville as it begins to offer public robotaxi rides in the city, a different approach than other partnerships with Uber or in cities like San Francisco where Waymo operates mostly on its own. Lyft will handle fleet services and eventually riders can request a robotaxi through the Lyft app.
CHAOS IN CHINA: In the wake of a similar Waymo robotaxi outage late last year in San Francisco, at least 100 Baidu Apollo Go robotaxis operating in the Chinese city of Wuhan experienced a mass outage, stranding passengers and causing traffic chaos. A passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi just stopped and flashed, “Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes.” Apparently help never arrived so the passenger exited the car on their own.
“No surprise that this flawed driverless technology failed on China’s roads – almost daily a robotaxi in the US malfunctions,” said TWU Administrative Vice President Curtis Tate. “One day it hits a child near a school and the next day it drives into an emergency response scene or disrupts transit bus traffic on city streets. These services should be shut down – they aren’t ready to serve passengers safely.”
This isn’t an isolated incident involving Baidu robotaxis. Last year one of its cars fell into a construction pit.
TESLA PROBE ESCALATES: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is escalating its investigation into Tesla’s so-called ‘full self-driving’ (FSD) technology included in 3.2 million cars including Model S, X, 3, Y, and Cybertruck EVs. Federal safety regulators are investigating the FSD system’s reported failure to “detect and/or warn the driver appropriately under degraded visibility conditions” such as bad weather, glare and fog.
“The probe,” CNBC reports, “has been elevated to an “engineering analysis,” after a string of complaints about collisions in which FSD was in use within 30 seconds of a crash, including one in which a Tesla driver who was using FSD struck and killed a pedestrian.” The Verge reports that this elevated federal probe means FSD is “on the cusp of a recall,” a move by regulators that would validate early safety warnings about this technology in 2021 by National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy.
WHAT WE’RE READING:
Pressed by Sen. Markey, Robotaxi Companies Refuse to Say How Often Their AVs Need Remote Help. TechCrunch
A Self-Driving Car in Texas Hit and Killed a Mother Duck, Sparking Neighborhood Outrage. TechCrunch.