California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed the CARS (California Automotive Regulatory Standards) Package, sending the automotive manufacturing and regulatory space into a tailspin.
The CARS Package combines Assembly Bill 2286, which would require human operators in any vehicle over 10,000 pounds, and Assembly Bill 3061, which would increase accident reporting and transparency requirements for companies operating autonomous vehicles (AVs)
Both ACC I and ACC II build on previous California legislation designed to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. ACC I, launched in 2012, focused on regulations for vehicle model years (MY) 2017 – 2025. As part of this program, vehicle manufacturer compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s GHG requirements for MY 2017 – 2025 would also serve as compliance with the state’s GHG emissions requirements for those same MY. The ZEV requirements for MY 2018 – 2025 were based on a credit system with the minimum requirement for each manufacturer, including the percentage of passenger cars and light-duty trucks produced and delivered for sale within the state.
Teamsters Joint Council 7 and Teamsters Joint Council 42 expressed disappointment over the veto. Together, both joint councils comprise 300,000 working people throughout California, Nevada, Hawaii, Guam, and Saipan, with members working in a wide variety of professions in the private and public sector, including freight and delivery, construction, dairy, beverage, rail and ports, food processing, parking, solid waste/recycling, hotels, transportation, schools, public services and more, .
“The Teamsters are incredibly disappointed by the veto of these two bills. The vast majority of Californians oppose unregulated, unaccountable driverless cars and trucks on our roads. A regulatory framework that ignores this reality does not benefit the people of California—the millions who want good middle-class jobs and safe streets, the people that our state government is bound by duty to serve. Such a framework only benefits a handful of billionaires in the tech industry,” according to a statement released by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. “Over 90% of state legislators support AV regulations. Regulating driverless cars and trucks is a broadly popular bipartisan issue, as California lawmakers have repeatedly demonstrated. The Teamsters are currently exploring all options at our disposal; this has only deepened our resolve to fight harder, faster, and more aggressively. We will do so before the legislature, in the courtroom, at city council and regulatory hearings, and at the ballot box. Teamsters don't run. We drive forward and accelerate. The Teamsters aren’t going anywhere. The fight for good jobs and safe streets is far from over. This is one battle in a long war to protect working people, and it’s just getting started.”
