Robotaxi fight intensifies as California approves San Francisco expansion

The California Public Utilities Commission voted on Thursday to let self-driving cars transport paying customers around San Francisco, overriding vociferous local and labor opposition in a preview of larger battles over technology that could reshape cities and workforces.

“Ultimately advocates on both sides of this issue care about the future," said Commissioner John Reynolds, who resisted calls to recuse himself because he had worked for one of the companies seeking authorization, "and so do we.”

Driverless vehicles are a common sight on the streets of technology-focused San Francisco, and operators Waymo and Cruise sought state approval to deploy those vehicles for paid rides at any time of the day or night. San Francisco city officials and firefighters pushed back, warning autonomous vehicles had blocked emergency vehicles and driven erratically as the parent companies withheld vital data — a point echoed by Los Angeles counterparts.

Commissioner Genevieve Shiroma cited those concerns in urging against what she called a "premature" green light.

“The commission lacks at present sufficient information to evaluate in any comprehensive fashion the safety aspects of this mode of transportation," Shiroma said, "especially insofar as this mode of transportation impacts the ability of first responders to carry out their duties."

The San Francisco dispute reflects a wider reckoning that has played out in Sacramento, pitting the tech sector against organized labor as both sides wrestle over self-driving vehicles’ roles in a changing economy. Tech companies believe the requirement would hobble their ability to improve and deploy the technology; unions fear drivers being put out of work and are backing state legislation to restrict self-driving trucks.

Supporters and foes testified for more than six hours on Thursday. Critics warned the technology would sacrifice jobs and still posed too many hazards, with many of them telling anecdotes of the cars foundering on city streets. While the companies brandished statistics showing driverless cars get into fewer accidents than human drivers, San Francisco Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson cited more than 50 reported instances of interference this year to argue the technology was not ready for wider use.

The vehicles are “a menace to public safety that benefits private corporations at the expense of the public good,” San Francisco resident Joshua Babcock testified.

Advocates argued self-driving vehicles can increase mobility for disabled people, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve public safety. “We need innovative businesses like Waymo and Cruise to help revitalize our city and put us on a sustainable path to meet our climate action goals,” the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Public Policy Program Manager Jackson Nutt-Beers said.

The Teamsters union has sought to block the San Francisco expansion while pushing state legislation that would require autonomous trucks to have human drivers on board. The California Labor Federation led other unions in urging the CPUC to postpone a vote until it gained “a better understanding of the displacement of workers that will result."

“Not only do our members share the roads with Robotaxis, but the technology can be deployed to map, replicate, and then eliminate traditional package delivery,” Western Region Vice President Peter Finn said in a text message. “This is an existential threat to hundreds of thousands of good middle class jobs across California communities. ”

But the San Francisco vote exposed some cracks in organized labor, with a pair of union locals embracing the companies’ expansion after Cruise committed to using their laborers to build charging facilities. John Doherty of IBEW Local 6 said the pledge marked "a commitment to green jobs."

An industry-funded coalition has been fighting back on multiple fronts, lobbying Sacramento over the trucking bill — with Waymo spending $600,000 so far this year — and launching advertisements urging people to contact the CPUC ahead of Thursday’s vote. People wearing the industry group's yellow t-shirts and buttons testified in favor of expansion on Thursday.

“Special interests are using every roadblock to jam up the process,” warned a digital ad urging people to contact the CPUC. “We can’t let them stand in the way of progress.”

Supporters of the state bill have said San Francisco’s rocky experiment with self-driving vehicles proves the technology is not ready for wider-scale use.

“There’s absolutely no reason to believe the San Francisco experience won’t be repeated in testing driverless autonomous trucks,” Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters) said as she presented the bill during a July hearing, warning the city approval process was advancing “over the passionate objection of our constituents and public safety officials.”