Newsom veto of robotrucks bill a win for AI
Gov. Gavin Newsom made his choice Friday when confronted with a bill that pitted organized labor versus the tech and business community promoting artificial intelligence.
Newsom chose AI. He vetoed AB316, which would have required a human driver to be present in the deployment of driverless heavy-duty trucks for at least five years as the state evaluates their safety.
Newsom called the proposed legislation “unnecessary” for the oversight of autonomous trucks, writing in his veto message that “existing law provides sufficient authority to create the appropriate regulatory framework.”
Newsom’s veto goes against the wishes of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union, which has 250,000 members in the state and whose president, Sean O’Brien, traveled to California last week for rallies in favor of the legislation. Union officials said the measure eventually could put 350,000 drivers out of work in California.
In his veto message, Newsom said he was directing the state’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency “to lead a stakeholder process next year to review and develop recommendations to mitigate the potential employment impact of testing and deployment of autonomous heavy-duty vehicles.”
The veto drew a swift rebuke Friday from Lorena Gonzalez, leader of the 2.1 million-member California Labor Federation, who called out Newsom for siding with his business world allies over his friends in labor.
“We will not sit by as bureaucrats side with tech companies, trading our safety for increased corporate profits,” Gonzalez wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
She said that labor will “continue to fight to make sure that robots do not replace human drivers.”
Jeff Farrah, executive director for the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association, applauded Newsom, saying in a statement that now “California’s safety experts can continue to evaluate autonomous vehicle technology and consider appropriate regulatory action.”
Dee Dee Myers, a senior adviser to Newsom and director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, opposed the legislation. In a memo she wrote opposing AB316, Myers said that requiring driverless trucks to require a human co-pilot would saddle the fledgling industry with too much duplicative regulatory burden while “nearly a dozen other states are moving forward with this technology. And many of those states are actively positioning themselves to lure away California-based companies and the investments and jobs they bring.” Myers cited a federal study projecting that the industry could increase employment by up to “35,100 jobs per year on average” over the next 30 years.
Newsom’s decision makes a strong statement not just about the future of work in what he describes as the world’s soon-to-be fourth largest economy, but about the role of artificial intelligence, how San Francisco can climb out of its doom loop and, of course, Newsom’s national political aspirations.
His move comes a week after the United Auto Workers went on strike against the Big Three automakers to extend the socalled Hot Labor Summer, putting Newsom in the same uncomfortable spot as President Joe Biden: He’s got to figure out a way to prioritize the larger economy without dissing his friends in labor, with whom he has has enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship.
In this case, Newsom sided against labor.