Quit being back-seat driverless,, DeB: gov

Mayor de Blasio is pledging to slam the brakes on Gov. Cuomo’s plan to let General Motors test self-driving cars on city streets — but Cuomo’s office says the state is in the driver’s seat and de Blasio is out of luck.

“It’s a mistake. I think it creates a danger. We are going to work vigorously to stop it,” de Blasio fumed Thursday.

But a spokesman for the state Department of Motor Vehicles shot back that it’s the state that tells the city what to do, not the other way around.

“The mayor can do whatever he wants, but the city is subject to state jurisdiction — it’s Government 101,” DMV spokeswoman Tiffany Portzer said.

“We understand that the mayor’s taxi-industry donors don’t like it, but it is the future and all states are exploring it.”

Cuomo blindsided de Blasio by waiting until the night before he announced the plan Monday to alert the mayor — then only send- ing Hizzoner the same press release the media received.

“From my point of view, this should have never been done without consulting with the NYPD and the Department of Transportation,” de Blasio raged. “We are going to work vigorously to stop it.”

Cuomo’s people say they called city Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg in Au- gust — a conversation city officials confirmed but argued was too light on details to constitute an official notice.

Under the plan, GM will test its autonomous Chevrolet Bolt cars throughout five square miles of lower Manhattan starting next year. The company and its selfdriving vehicle division, Cruise Automation, would not specify the boundaries of the test area.

De Blasio is charging that the plan introduces a “potential new danger” as he tries to bring down traffic fatalities through his Vision Zero street-safety initiative.

“The day may come when it is appropriate to test, but only after a very careful process,” he said.

Vision Zero aims to halve the number of traffic fatalities by 2025.

But Portzer said the cars are safe enough and the mayor is uniformed.

“If the mayor bothered to learn the facts on GM’s testing, he would know that there will be a licensed driver behind the wheel who is also a qualified engineer and a passenger to monitor the vehicle during every demonstration,” she said.

“In fact, New York state’s requirements are stricter than any other state’s in the nation.”

Mayoral spokesman Eric Phillips returned fire by saying, “We trust the DMV when it comes to renewing licenses. We trust the NYPD when it comes to keeping our streets safe.”

We understand d thatt the mayor’sr’s taxi-industry donorsnors don’t like it, but it is the future and nd all states are exploring it. — State DMV spokeswoman woman on de Blasio opposing g Gov. Cuomo’s plan to testt self-driving cars