The Teamsters Union urged Newsom to sign AB316 to Protect Driverless Trucks on the Roads. A road safety message to the state of California

The state assembly passed the measure on June 1st in order to give the state Department of Motor Vehicles time to consider rules allowing trucks over 10,000 pounds to drive on California roads. The union urged him to pass the bill, which was due October 14th. Newsom rejected it the same day.

California has given the DMV regulatory authority over self-sufficient vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the state highway patrol and others are consulted by the Department of Motor Vehicles to write laws to ensure safe self-drive vehicles. There have been incidents where a robotaxis has been involved in, one of which was when a car was struck by a fire truck after the state allowed for their expanded operation.

Newsom wrote that the DMV had sought the input of “interested stakeholders” to help it craft future laws surrounding driverless vehicles. He said that the department will seek public comment after a transparent, public rulemaking.

The bill received unanimous support from the state legislature, with 36 state senators affirming it and just two rejecting it on September 11th, and state assembly members approving it by 69 to four in May.

Teamsters president Sean O’Brien wrote that “jobs and communities” would have been saved by the bill, and vetoing it gives “a greenlight to put these dangerous rigs on the road.”

“My administration has long been concerned with the impact of technology on the future of work,” wrote Newsom in his veto message, later writing that he would ask the Labor and Workforce Department to work with stakeholders to recommend ways to mitigate the damage self-driving trucks may have on employment.

Companies developing the technology say it will save freight shippers money by enabling trucks to run loads on highways 24 hours a day, and by eliminating the dangers of distracted human driving, which could bring down insurance costs.

The Teamsters union, which represents tens of thousands US truck drivers, mechanics, and other freight workers, organized a mass caravan to Sacramento this week to urge Newsom to sign AB316, which would have required a safety driver on self-driving trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds through at least the end of the decade.

Most of the US companies working on autonomous trucks operate on highways in the Southeast and West, especially Texas, where dry weather and a come-as-y’all-are approach to driverless tech regulations make conditions ideal. Safety drivers who are trained to take over when the truck goes wrong, have not been removed from the testing of autonomous trucks. TuSimple has stopped its US operations after completing a few fully self-driving truck demonstrations in the US.