Lower than a month after Waymo’s Los Angeles County enlargement, labor organizers and an LA lawmaker are calling for brand new autonomous-vehicle rules.
On Tuesday, the workplace of LA Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez mentioned he’ll introduce a movement “urging officers within the state to handle public security considerations round autonomous automobiles and reign within the enlargement of robotaxis in Los Angeles.”
The workplace cited each Waymo and Cruise within the assertion, which went out shortly after California’s DMV yanked Cruise’s robotaxi permits.
The movement would have LA Metropolis Legal professional Hydee Feldstein Soto be a part of San Francisco’s present robotaxi lawsuit towards the California Public Utilities Fee. The CPUC is simply one of many regulatory our bodies overseeing the rollout of autonomous automobiles in California.
Councilmember Soto-Martínez represents LA’s thirteenth district, which incorporates Silverlake, Atwater Village, Little Armenia and Little Bangladesh. The lawmaker’s workplace mentioned he’ll introduce the movement at Wednesday’s metropolis council assembly, following a press convention with Teamsters chief Chris Griswold.
Final week, LA Councilmember Traci Park launched a movement calling for studies on town’s capacity to control autonomous automobiles. “The Metropolis might want to tackle the potential impacts of those automobiles on the street,” the movement mentioned. Park represents town’s eleventh district, together with Venice, Sawtelle and Brentwood.
Waymo and Cruise didn’t instantly reply to TechCrunch’s requests for touch upon their LA operations and the lawmakers’ statements.
In the meantime, Teamsters simply led its second rally in Santa Monica in as many weeks over “ongoing security considerations with robotaxis.” The organizers mentioned they timed the Tuesday occasion to coincide with Alphabet and Google’s newest earnings report.
Dozens of individuals gathered exterior Google’s headquarters in Venice to attract the eye of elected officers, Teamsters Native 396 communications head Adan Alvarez instructed TechCrunch. “Our communities shouldn’t be lab rats for this harmful know-how,” he mentioned, standing close to a gigantic binoculars statue on the beachside workplace. “Clearly it’s not secure, and our native elected officers ought to look into what may be accomplished to guard the security, defend the widespread good,” mentioned Alvarez.
The Teamsters rep cited Governor Gavin Newsom’s resolution to veto a invoice requiring human drivers in vehicles weighing greater than 10,000 kilos. Alvarez mentioned the veto offers tech companies a “inexperienced gentle to begin experimenting with bigger automobiles” and places drivers’ jobs in danger.
Waymo’s LA enlargement has been a very long time coming. The corporate began mapping town in 2019, and it kicked off robotaxi experience testing with workers in Santa Monica round March 2023. Waymo intends to develop in Los Angeles metropolis correct “quickly,” per the corporate’s web site.
GM-backed Cruise has additionally examined autonomous automobiles in LA. The DMV’s suspensions go away room for Cruise to proceed working within the metropolis, as long as a human driver is current behind the wheel.