Self-driving trucks land in crosshairs of California labor push

Fry, a Teamsters trucker for 27 years, sees autonomy as a near-term threat to his family. His wife, Raquel, has battled cancer for seven years, and the past two have been full of long hospital stays. Her death is imminent, he said, and he has five children. His job has covered her health care and keeps food on the table.

“If it wasn’t for my benefits, I’d be destitute, and in way worse tatters than I am now,” he said.

Nobody has provided an adequate explanation of what sort of cushion might carry him and his fellow drivers through the sort of job transition that Regan describes, Fry said.

Fry grew up and still lives in San Bruno, Calif., in the shadow of Silicon Valley. He’s not a Luddite, but his truck routes take him through San Francisco at least once a week, and near the Moscone Center, he said he often encounters robotaxis that cause traffic problems and gridlock. That’s a complaint echoed by city officials.

“They absolutely impede traffic,” Fry said. “You have safety and emergency vehicles not able to get to the scene. I know there’s intelligent people trying to figure out these problems. I just don’t think they’re there yet.”

Fry is concerned the robotaxis provide a harrowing preview of what would happen when autonomous trucks reach roads. Until the technology is refined and a road map exists for preserving good-paying jobs, he sees Assembly Bill 316 as a “common sense” bulwark against unnecessary risk.

But risk is not a one-way street.

California, home to the purveyors of self-driving technology, risks isolating itself and hindering its economic prospects. States such as Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Florida and Georgia have provided frameworks for self-driving operations, either by enacting legislation or via executive orders. Mississippi became the latest to join its I-10 corridor counterparts in late March.

“You see state after state across the country moving forward with autonomous vehicles without a driver,” Talbott said. “And yet California languishes on the side of the road, when we should be the seat of innovation.”