California prepares legal framework for autonomous trucking

California has officially submitted its first draft of regulations for the operation of autonomous semi-trucks, as Tesla and other companies continue to develop their own self-driving technologies.

On Friday, California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) publicized its first draft of regulations on self-driving Class 8 trucks on highways, as reported by Reuters. The plans would initially start with safety drivers in both light- and heavy-duty scenarios, and the department plans to accept feedback on the regulations between now and October 14.

The Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association called the draft “an important step for the future of roadway safety and supply chain resiliency in California.”

The draft follows the California Assembly’s passage of two autonomous driving safety bills this week, which will now cross the desk of Governor Gavin Newsom, who can sign them into law.

While some praised the legislation this week, others warned that it could result in significant job losses, as driver positions will be outsourced to self-driving systems.

“The regulations are an insult to California workers who already fear losing their jobs to automation,” said Sean O’Brien, Teamsters General President.

TEAMSTERS CONDEMN CALIFORNIA GOV. NEWSOM’S PROPOSED AUTONOMOUS TRUCK REGULATIONS
Newsom Reconfirms His Commitment to Corporate Profit Over Good Jobs. pic.twitter.com/m2YhSXjVYZ

— Teamsters Local 70 (@local_70) August 30, 2024

Tesla is just one of many companies developing autonomous driving software, perhaps most notably including the Alphabet-owned company Waymo, and the GM-owned Cruise—the latter of which has been trying to re-launch paid rides after an accident last October.

Unlike Waymo and Cruise, however, Tesla’s FSD is being developed across its entire vehicle lineup, using a trained AI neural network that’s expected to be able to operate almost anywhere, rather than on mapped roads. Between FSD (Supervised) being available to anyone who buys it and its neural net being trained by all of these drivers, Tesla often argues that its FSD will be more scalable than Cruise or Waymo, since they’re limited to pre-mapped regions.

In any case, Tesla is also building a facility at its Gigafactory Nevada to scale up production of its own electric Semi, which has already started being delivered to a handful of early customers. Eventually, drivers will be able to use FSD in the Semi, with autonomous trucking expected to change the transportation industry substantially. In addition to its already available Full Self-Driving (FSD) Supervised, Tesla is also expected to unveil a robotaxi platform in October.

Tesla Semi logs 1,000-mile day in Run on Less EV trucking study

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