Plans To Bring Waymo To Washington, D.C., Worry Ride-Share Drivers

Plans To Bring Waymo To Washington, D.C., Worry Ride-Share Drivers Eddie Velazquez (prismreports.org › eddie velasquez) Prism Municipal lawmakers in Washington, D.C., want to bring autonomous vehicle services to the nation’s capital, a move that ride-share drivers and other workers say would significantly inhibit their ability to provide for their families during troubling economic times. City Council is considering a bill (lims.dccouncil.gov › B26 0684 Introduction) that would allow companies such as Waymo (waymo.com), which operates a self-driving taxi service in 11 U.S.cities and is testing package deliveries on autonomous vehicles, to operate in Washington, D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen, who represents Ward 6 and chairs the council’s committee on transportation and the environment, said at a July 13 hearing (dc.granicus.com) that part of his impetus for bringing the bill forward and establishing regulations on autonomous vehicles is public safety. For Allen, autonomous vehicles represent a watershed moment for transportation. Their expansion in transportation, he said, is a fait accompli. “I don’t think it is a question of [whether autonomous vehicles] are coming. It is when, under what conditions, and how they would work for our local roadways and our local economy,” Allen said. “Many human drivers cannot safely operate a motor vehicle. If there is a new transportation option that can save lives and prevent injuries, then we owe it to our residents to explore that option fully and with an open mind.” According to experts, there is no consensus (publichealth.jhu.edu › the safety data on autonomous vehicles) on whether autonomous vehicles are safer than humans driving; early data (nature.com › s41467 024 48526 4) suggests that the rate of crashes is far lower, but autonomous vehicles also represent a very small sample of all cars on the road, and the risk of accidents at dawn and dusk could actually be greater in autonomous vehicles. Allen’s bill requires autonomous vehicle ride-share services to provide equal coverage to every neighborhood, clarifies legal liability for crashes and malfunctions, ensures first responders receive guidance from operators on how to safely respond to crashes involving an autonomous vehicle, ensures services can continue to operate during a power outage, and directs city agencies to produce reports on traffic safety and worker displacement. Unions representing UPS drivers, as well as thousands of workers in other industries who rely on ride-share driving for supplemental income—such as cleaners and security workers for commercial buildings and airport workers—have pushed back against the measure, which could be up for a vote this fall (x.com) after city councilmembers return from a two-month recess. Allen did not respond to questions about workers’ concerns regarding the bill. “All sorts of jobs would be affected,” said Bill Davis, the president of the Teamsters Local 639, which represents UPS drivers in the Washington, D.C., area. “We’ve asked the D.C. government to make sure this bill does not affect workers negatively. The bill is very broad, and we are opposed to it.” Davis and several workers represented by Local 639, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 32BJ, and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, testified at a council committee hearing for the bill that lasted about 10 hours. Davis told Prism that the arrival and proliferation of autonomous vehicles could result in reduced hours or the outright elimination of jobs for a couple thousand workers, including the 1,500 UPS delivery drivers in Washington. “Less hours, no work,” Demani Petron-King, a UPS worker who also spoke at the hearing,