- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.ml
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill to require human drivers on board self-driving trucks, a measure that union leaders and truck drivers said would save hundreds of thousands of jobs in the state.
The legislation vetoed Friday night would have banned self-driving trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds (4,536 kilograms) — ranging from UPS delivery vans to massive big rigs — from operating on public roads unless a human driver is on board.
Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, head of the California Labor Federation, said driverless trucks are dangerous and called Newsom’s veto shocking. She estimates that removing drivers would cost a quarter million jobs in the state.
I’ll bet a human in the mix is more likely to cause an accident. In either case, saving jobs this way seems like a really dumb idea. 
Autonomous vehicles apparently lull human drivers into a state of comfort very quickly, I imagine that the “human drivers” wouldn’t be alert and ready to prevent a tragedy.
I don’t know how I feel about the push for autonomous vehicles. But I know from working with professional drivers that it totally wrecks the human body.
Just let statistics tell the story. If autonomous vehicles are overall safer on the road, that is your answer.