State Legislature Pushes Back against a New Law to Require a Safety Driver in Heavy-Duty Self-Driving Trucks

The bill would have required human attendants in vehicles over 10,000 pounds, but the Governor vetoed it. The bill saw broad support among state legislators and was backed by the Teamsters and other labor organizations. At the moment.

The law is unnecessary because the state Highway Patrol and the Department of Motor Vehicles already oversee and create regulations for new technology, according to the letter released yesterday. State agencies are making rules for heavy duty vehicles, including trucks.

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

The bill saw overwhelming support among California lawmakers, with 36 state senators affirming it and just two rejecting the measure on September 11th, and state assemblymembers approving it by 69 to 4 on May 31st.

Sean O’Brien wrote that if the bill had been enacted it would have saved jobs and communities, and that vetoing it would have given the green light to put dangerous rigs on the road.

The future of work is something that the administration has been concerned about for a long time, wrote the governor in his veto message, asking the Labor and Workforce Department to look at ways to mitigate the possible damage self-driving trucks could do to 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 union, which represents tens of thousands of truck drivers, mechanics, and other freight workers, organized a mass caravan to California this week to encourage the state’s governor to sign a measure that would have required a safety driver on self- driving trucks that weighed more than 10,000 pounds.

dry weather and an approach to tech regulation made Texas an ideal location for the majority of US companies working on self-driving trucks. Safety drivers who are trained to take over when a car goes wrong aren’t being removed from the testing of self-drive trucks in the US. TuSimple has paused its US operations after completing a handful of completely driverless truck demonstrations in the US.