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Tag: Driverless cars

  • Driverless taxis in NYC? Keep Waymo off the streets, say union protesters

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    Livery drivers with the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers rallied outside Gov. Hochul’s midtown office on Monday, calling for an end to the city’s testing of driverless taxi cars by tech giant Waymo.

    “Taxi and livery drivers risk their lives every day to transport New Yorkers safely,” NYSFTD president Steven Rivera said in a statement. “Robots cannot replace human instinct, compassion, or accountability.”

    Monday’s rally, in which about a dozen drivers showed up outside Hochul’s office, comes days after Mayor Adams’ announcement on Friday that the city had approved an application by the Google subsidiary, allowing it to test eight driverless cars in Downtown Brooklyn and in Manhattan south of 110th St.

    The cars will still be required to have humans in the driver seat, and Waymo will have to file a report with the city each time the human driver has to take over for the robotaxi.

    City and state law forbids the eight cars from acting as taxis during the test period, and Waymo has not applied for plates with the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission.

    Nevertheless, Fernando Mateo, a spokesman for the Federation of Taxi Drivers, said the test was a grave threat to his members’ livelihood.

    “Cancer starts with a dot and then it spreads,” Mateo told The News Monday. “This is a cancer to us.”

    All three organizations representing Gotham’s taxi, livery and ride-share drivers have now called on the city to end testing and protect the jobs of human drivers.

    Last week, Brendan Sexton, head of the Independent Drivers Guild, accused Adams of turning Gothamites into “lab rats for Silicon Valley investors who are seeking to destroy the livelihoods of the 100,000 New Yorkers.”

    Bhairavi Desai, head of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, questioned whether there was any real consumer demand.

    “If you don’t want to be around people, there’s plenty of other places to live around the country,” Desai told the Daily News Friday. “Does New York really need a driverless car to feel advanced?”

    Asked about the rally, Sean Butler, a spokesman for Hochul, emphasized that the state was ensuring the safety of any driverless technology testing.

    “State law establishes clear procedures for permitting of autonomous vehicle testing, with the highest safety standards applied,” he said in a statement. “New York State will continue to work with New York City officials to ensure the safety of any testing program.”

    Waymo began lobbying in June for New York to allow fully autonomous robotaxis on city streets, a move that is currently prohibited by state law.

    In July, the company began running its vehicles — identifiable by their spinning, roof-mounted sensor system — along city streets, but always with a human in full control.

    Last week, less than two months later, the city’s Transportation Department approved Waymo’s plans to let computers begin to take the wheel — albeit with a human ready to jump in if need be.

    A law that would allow autonomous vehicle operation in the state is currently before the Transportation Committee of the State Senate, but is spinning its wheels in the Assembly.

    With Barry Williams

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  • Union has 4-word response after suspension of some driverless cars in CA

    Union has 4-word response after suspension of some driverless cars in CA

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    A local Teamsters union in California said the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) responded “too little, too late” in deciding to suspend permits for some driverless vehicles.

    The California DMV announced the “immediate” suspension of General Motors’ Cruise autonomous vehicle testing permits on Tuesday, writing in a press release that it determined based on the driverless vehicles’ performance that they “are not safe for the public’s operation” and that their manufacturer “misrepresented any information related to safety of the autonomous technology of its vehicles.”

    Teamsters Western Region International Vice President and Secretary-Treasurer Peter Finn of Teamsters Local 856 said in a press release that the DMV’s decision “is a step in the right direction, but it’s too little, too late.” Finn added that the Northern California labor union “will not be appeased by baby steps or half-measures.”

    A driverless car from General Motors’ Cruise division is photographed driving through traffic in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California, on May 21, 2019. The California DMV issued an immediate suspension of Cruise driverless vehicle testing permits on Tuesday.
    Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

    The union also expressed disappointment that the California DMV said Cruise could later apply to have its driverless permits reinstated, though the state agency “will not approve until the company has fulfilled the requirements to the department’s satisfaction.”

    Finn said in the Teamsters release that regulators “should have enough foresight and operational savvy to know that the responsible thing to do is to make sure that automated driving systems are safe before they are introduced to the general public – not after they are introduced, and certainly not after driverless cars have caused traffic jams, injuries, and obstructions to first responders.”

    Newsweek reached out to the California DMV for comment via email on Tuesday.

    The Teamsters rallied outside Cruise’s San Francisco headquarters earlier Tuesday to push for “real regulation” of driverless vehicles, including Cruise’s robotaxis. At the rally, which was streamed live on Facebook, participants cited a recent National Highway Traffic Safety Administration probe into Cruise about pedestrian-related safety concerns. This review followed an earlier agreement that Cruise would reduce its number of operational driverless vehicles in San Francisco while a couple of crashes were investigated, according to the Associated Press.

    California’s Public Utilities Commission granted approval in August to Cruise and another driverless car company, Waymo LLC, to begin charging riders for transportation regardless of time of day in San Francisco. Prior to that decision, Cruise was allowed to charge people for driverless rides in the city between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. or offer rides for free at any time of day. In order to charge passengers during the daytime, Cruise previously needed to have a safety driver accompanying passengers in its autonomous vehicles.

    In a Tuesday post on X, formerly Twitter, Cruise acknowledged the California DMV’s Tuesday decision and said it “will be pausing” driverless vehicle operations in San Francisco. While the company said its vehicles are created and used to “save lives,” the company statement acknowledged one recent crash it said the California DMV is investigating. The crash involved a human driver striking a pedestrian, who then fell in a Cruise driverless vehicle’s path, the company said.

    “The AV braked aggressively before impact and because it detected a collision, it attempted to pull over to avoid further safety issues,” the statement said. “When the AV tried to pull over, it continued before coming to a final stop, pulling the pedestrian forward.” The company said it shared information on the incident with state and federal authorities, communicated with local police and has been “in close contact with regulators to answer questions.”

    “Our teams are currently doing an analysis to identify potential enhancements to the AV’s response to this kind of extremely rare event,” the statement added.