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DESCRIPTION:The massive electrical outage in San Francisco caused by PG&E’s failures 
 has also exposed the dangerous threat of Google’s Waymo autonomous 
 vehicles. The shutdown of electrical power caused them to stop in the 
 middle of streets blocking not only other vehicles but ambulances and fire 
 trucks. This is a life and death threat to the people of San Francisco and 
 the State.\n\nThe threat of major earthquakes in San Francisco and on the 
 West Coast are real dangers to the public and this is known by the DMV and 
 the California Public Utility Commission, yet they have flagrantly ignored 
 these serious dangers. These agencies are controlled by Governor Newsom and 
 have allowed these cars on our streets and are also planning to allow 
 autonomous trucks over 10,000 pounds to operate on our highways despite 
 opposition from the Teamsters and many other workers and 
 communities.\n\nNewsom received a $10 million political contribution from 
 Google and is a shill for the tech billionaires. He also controls the CPUC 
 through his appointments and this agency along with his DMV was allowed 
 through Democratic party legislature to take any control or regulation out 
 of the hands of local entities like San Francisco. Newsom & SF Mayor Daniel 
 Lurie also want them on Market St and to take parking spaces from the 
 people of San Francisco.\n\nThey have allowed their unregulated 
 introduction on the streets of San Francisco and other cities and towns 
 threatening workers and the public but benefiting the billionaires behind 
 this introduction of this AI technology and they want total deregulation 
 which their supporter Trump is implementing nationally.\n\nThese policies 
 have allowed the public and communities to be used as a training area and 
 guinea pigs for these billion-dollar tech companies who want to eliminate 
 millions of workers and destroy any health and safety protection with total 
 deregulation with them in complete control.\n\nWe need a halt to any 
 further testing of these vehicles on our streets of SF and the state. AI 
 and tech should benefit the workers and communities and not the 
 billionaires who run San Francisco, the US and the world.\n\nInitial 
 Endorsers\n\nSan Francisco Taxi Workers Alliance, STOP AI, United Front 
 Committee for A Labor Party, WorkWeek\nFor more info: 
 labormedia1@gmail.com\n\nHow Self-Driving Cars will Destroy Cities (and 
 what to do about 
 it)\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=040ejWnFkj0\n\nRobotaxis, a 
 ‘needless and dangerous corporate 
 experiment’\n\nhttps://www.thestand.org/2025/10/robotaxis-a-needless-and-dangerous-corporate-experiment/\n\nDrivers 
 Union is voicing opposition to untested autonomous vehicles on public roads 
 without human safety operators\n\nSEATTLE, WA (October 30, 2025) — While 
 Waymo lobbyists snacked on canapés at a cocktail party, rideshare drivers 
 represented by the Drivers Union crowded the sidewalk in Seattle’s 
 Belltown neighborhood on Thursday, protesting the company’s plan to flood 
 the city’s streets with robotaxis.\n\nThis action comes on the heels of 
 an open letter circulated by the Drivers Union, laying out serious concerns 
 with unmanned autonomous vehicles on Washington’s roads, including 
 threats to safety and local jobs.\n\nA Waymo unmanned vehicle recently 
 failed to recognize a school bus in Atlanta, bypassing the flashing lights 
 and stop arm to zip by children getting off the bus. Regulators think this 
 failure may be widespread, and now 2,000 Waymo vehicles are under 
 investigation. It’s just one of countless examples of autonomous vehicles 
 failing to follow rules of the road, as tech companies use local 
 communities as guinea pigs for tech not yet, perhaps ever, safe for public 
 roads. Advocates warn these threats to safety are more serious for children 
 and people of color due to poorly-developed algorithms.\n\n“We’ve seen 
 a frightening trend by robotaxi software to perpetuate racial and other 
 biases,” Drivers Union President Peter Kuel said in a statement. 
 “Research shows that driverless vehicles are less likely to detect people 
 with darker skin and less likely to recognize children than adult 
 pedestrians.”\n\nAdvocates are also concerned about local job losses. The 
 business practices of rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft already 
 threaten workers’ economic stability. Through the Drivers Union, workers 
 have been able to fight back against some of these companies’ anti-worker 
 policies. But that progress is under threat with the introduction of 
 untested autonomous vehicle tech.\n\n“Please remember that rideshare 
 drivers like me are members of our local community – working hard every 
 day to support our community and families,” said Adama Dukuray, a 
 rideshare driver for more than 10 years who joined yesterday’s protest. 
 “By organizing with Drivers Union, we’ve made progress in pushing back 
 on Uber and Lyft to achieve basic protections like a minimum wage, access 
 to benefits like paid sick leave, and legal protections against unfair 
 deactivation. It would be disastrous if another big tech company came into 
 our community, took our jobs, and erased the gains we have won – all 
 while increasing congestion with more unnecessary cars on our 
 streets.”\n\nThe bottom line, “Robotaxis threaten union jobs that 
 provide economic security to thousands of local workers,” said 
 Kuel.\n\nFor these reasons and more, robotaxis are deeply unpopular. One 
 poll of 8,000 respondents saw the majority say they want to see robotaxis 
 outlawed altogether. So why the push to get them on our streets?\n\nTech 
 companies based hundreds of miles away are chasing profits, betting on a 
 future market for robotaxis that financial analysts aren’t confident will 
 ever materialize. With the dangers this untested tech poses for local 
 communities, the question becomes: where are the guardrails?\n\nDrivers 
 Union wants to see regulators deny permitting to robotaxis, appropriately 
 regulate and require human safety operators in vehicles, and leave 
 Washington off the list of places allowing what the union calls a 
 “needless and dangerous corporate experiment to play out on public 
 streets.”\n\n“With driverless robotaxis, Waymo wants to conduct a 
 dangerous experiment on the residents of Seattle,” said Paul Dascher, 
 Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 117. “These vehicles have been 
 known to hit pedestrians, block emergency vehicles, and impede the flow of 
 traffic. Seattle needs human drivers, not corporate 
 robots.”\n\nSupporters are encouraged to sign-on to the drivers’ open 
 letter and join the call for effective regulation of autonomous 
 vehicles.\n\nDrivers Union is the voice for Washington’s more than 30,000 
 ride-hail drivers and is certified by Washington Department of Labor & 
 Industries as the statewide Driver Resource Center. For more information, 
 visit DriversUnionWA.org.\n\nRobotaxis without a brake pedal or mirrors? 
 Not so fast, feds say.\n\nA previously undisclosed safety report could 
 throw a wrench into the push for autonomous cars designed without a driver 
 in 
 mind.\n\nhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/03/11/zoox-autonomous-nhtsa-safety/\n\nMarch 
 11, 2025 at 7:05 a.m. EDTToday at 7:05 a.m. EDT\n\n7 min\n\n93\n\nA Zoox 
 robotaxi spotted in San Francisco in January. (Chris Velazco/The Washington 
 Post)\n\nBy Ian Duncan\n\n and \n\nTrisha Thadani\n\nAn Amazon-backed 
 self-driving taxi failed to meet vehicle safety standards because it lacks 
 basics like a brake pedal and rearview mirrors, according to a report by 
 federal inspectors that raises questions about the industry’s plans to 
 put a new generation of autonomous vehicles on U.S. roads.\n\nGet a curated 
 selection of 10 of our best stories in your inbox every weekend.\n\nThe 
 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report was produced as part 
 of a review last year of an unusual vehicle by Amazon subsidiary Zoox that, 
 without a steering wheel or other human controls, has no way for a person 
 to drive. Zoox has asserted that the vehicle’s technology, backed by 
 artificial intelligence, complies with the agency’s standards. But the 
 NHTSA report documents “apparent noncompliances” with eight safety 
 rules.\n\nThe contents of the previously undisclosed review suggest that 
 rules written when autonomous vehicles were the stuff of futuristic musings 
 pose a legal impediment to the industry’s ambitions, even as plans for 
 self-driving vehicles accelerate. Zoox has a small pilot fleet on the roads 
 in California and Nevada and says it has completed thousands of trips 
 carrying employees and guests. It is finalizing plans to launch public 
 service in Las Vegas this year.\n\nTesla also is planning to build 
 robotaxis without pedals and mirrors, vehicles that chief executive Elon 
 Musk has said represent the future of his company. Tesla has applied for 
 permission to transport nonpaying customers in California, and it has said 
 it plans to put autonomous versions of its existing electric vehicles on 
 the road this year.\n\nMusk told financial analysts last year before 
 President Donald Trump’s election that he would seek to use his influence 
 in the White House to create a regulatory path to get autonomous vehicles 
 on the road.\n\nNHTSA did not make the December findings on Zoox’s 
 vehicle public; the agency’s review of the robotaxi’s design remains 
 open. The Washington Post obtained the report through a public records 
 request made to state regulators in California, who had a copy.\n\nBy 
 documenting the apparent noncompliances of the Zoox, NHTSA could be setting 
 the table for a recall, under agency procedures. It is unclear whether the 
 Trump administration will attempt a change in course. The agency said it 
 remains in discussion with Zoox and was “considering all 
 options.”\n\n“We will continue to support transportation technology 
 innovation while maintaining the safety of America’s roads,” NHTSA said 
 in a statement. Tesla and the White House, where Musk is a key adviser to 
 Trump as leader of the U.S. DOGE Service, did not respond to a request for 
 comment.\n\nThe review underscores how NHTSA has struggled to keep up with 
 rapidly evolving technology. Matthew Wansley, a professor at Cardozo School 
 of Law who focuses on autonomous vehicles, said the findings do not 
 necessarily mean the vehicle is inherently unsafe, nor do they say anything 
 about the ability of Zoox’s autonomous driving system to safely navigate 
 traffic.\n\nZoox could have sought an exemption from the safety rules, but 
 NHTSA has never granted one to an autonomous passenger vehicle. Instead, 
 the company self-certified that its vehicle complied with the rules as it 
 raced to be the first company to put a purpose-built robotaxi on the road 
 and claim a share of what could become a multitrillion-dollar 
 market.\n\nZoox’s vehicle bears little resemblance to a normal car. The 
 plan is for customers to summon a ride using an app, much like a regular 
 ride-sharing vehicle, getting in through bus-like doors and sitting facing 
 one another.\n\nThe vehicle navigates itself, seeing the world through a 
 set of cameras and laser-based sensors. It largely relies on its own 
 abilities to drive, but the company says teams of remote operators can 
 seize control to help handle unusual situations. Passengers can call for 
 assistance via a touch screen and open the doors using an emergency 
 release.\n\nPhil Koopman, an expert on autonomous vehicles at Carnegie 
 Mellon University, said Zoox’s strategy was to “get on the road and ask 
 forgiveness later,” betting that it could scale up faster than regulators 
 could handle. Koopman said the report shows investigators caught 
 up.\n\n“This proves Zoox is willing to bend the rules to make 
 progress,” Koopman said. “There’s no question.”\n\nZoox is a 
 subsidiary of Amazon, whose founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post. 
 The company said it stands by its position that the vehicle complies with 
 the federal standards.\n\n“Our recent discussions with NHTSA are about 
 mirrors, windshield wipers, a defroster, and a foot-activated brake pedal 
 — equipment that makes sense for vehicles with human drivers, but not for 
 the Zoox purpose-built robotaxi,” Zoox said in a statement. “Our 
 purpose-built design means that the robotaxi can never be operated by a 
 human driver, and our AI driver doesn’t rely on this equipment to view 
 the world.”\n\nIt is unclear when NHTSA might conclude its review.\n\nAn 
 industry group that represents Zoox called on NHTSA in January to 
 reinterpret its rules to allow for autonomous vehicles without traditional 
 controls, and Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy has said creating a 
 path to get more autonomous vehicles on the road is a priority. Duffy’s 
 office did not respond to a request for comment.\n\nThe federal review 
 could also complicate the companies’ dealings with state regulators. The 
 inspection report was provided to officials at the California and Nevada 
 departments of motor vehicles, which released copies to The Post under 
 public records requests. Legal experts said the findings could call into 
 question Zoox’s ability to test in California, because state rules 
 require autonomous vehicles to comply with the federal standards.\n\n“I 
 just don’t know how the California DMV can continue to let Zoox test with 
 this vehicle without some document from NHTSA that exempts Zoox from 
 compliance,” Wansley said.\n\nThe California DMV said in a statement that 
 it was aware of the federal review and noted that it was ongoing. It 
 referred other questions to NHTSA and Zoox. A spokeswoman for the Nevada 
 DMV said it had not taken any action based on the report.\n\nThe 
 uncertainty over robotaxis rules is compounded by the way the federal 
 government regulates auto safety. NHTSA regulations allow manufacturers to 
 self-certify that their vehicles meet safety standards. The agency is left 
 to investigate any safety issues once vehicles are already on the 
 road.\n\nIn 2022, Zoox attached a label to its vehicle asserting that it 
 complied with the rules. In 2024, a trio of NHTSA employees showed up at a 
 Zoox facility in Las Vegas, bearing calipers, a ruler, a set of scales and 
 masking tape to put that assertion to the test, according to their report. 
 They documented apparent noncompliances with eight federal standards, 
 including the lack of brake pedals, rearview mirrors, windshield wipers and 
 defoggers. (The lack of a steering wheel does not fall afoul of the rules 
 because of changes NHTSA made to safety standards in 2022.)\n\nExperts said 
 many of the findings do not necessarily call into question the safety of 
 the vehicle because the required controls and mirrors are not used by its 
 computerized driver. But the investigators did find that the vehicles’ 
 windshields were not made with the required type of glass, which could pose 
 risk in a crash.\n\nMichael Brooks, the executive director of the Center 
 for Auto Safety, said the failure to use the correct type of glass raised 
 the question about other potential issues that could only be revealed in 
 crash tests.\n\n“That’s a big screwup on their part,” Brooks 
 said.\n\nWaymo, Google parent Alphabet’s autonomous driving unit, opted 
 to use modified versions of regular road-legal cars with a normal set of 
 controls for humans. It has emerged as the industry’s leading player, 
 with its taxi service driving 150,000 passenger trips a week in multiple 
 cities. In January, Tekedra Mawakana, the company’s co-chief executive, 
 said that she didn’t see its approach changing soon and that a new 
 vehicle would continue to have human controls.\n\n“Because it’s 
 required so by law that cars that are FMVSS certified have all of the human 
 controls,” she said, referring to the federal standards using an acronym. 
 “And so it has all of the human controls.”\n\nWaymo’s robotaxis 
 couldn’t handle S.F.’s power outage. What happens when an earthquake 
 hits?\n\nhttps://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/waymo-power-outage-earthquake-21257311.php\n\n\nBy 
 Kate Talerico, \n\nStaff Writer\n\nDec 23, 2025\n\n\nA Waymo driverless 
 robotaxi is unable to detect traffic lights after a major power outage in 
 San Francisco on Saturday. The company’s stalled cars caused congestion 
 around the city during the outage. \n\nA Waymo driverless robotaxi is 
 unable to detect traffic lights after a major power outage in San Francisco 
 on Saturday. The company’s stalled cars caused congestion around the city 
 during the outage. \n\nTayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images\n\n\nIn a 
 city struggling to see its way through the dark, it became the prevailing 
 sight of San Francisco’s worst blackout in years: Waymo robotaxis stalled 
 on city streets.\n\nAs traffic signals went dark Saturday following a fire 
 at a PG&E substation, dozens of Waymos came to a halt, blocking 
 intersections and holding up traffic. Now officials are calling for answers 
 over what caused the self-driving cars to stall out, and whether the system 
 is prepared to handle a larger emergency like an earthquake. \n\nThough 
 Waymos are designed to treat an intersection without signals as a four-way 
 stop, the sheer scale of the outage appears to have overloaded the system. 
 The situation was also compounded by Waymos lining up behind one another. 
 Detecting a stopped car ahead, the following Waymo dutifully waited — 
 triggering a domino effect that left entire intersections blocked. Human 
 drivers swerved around the stranded cars, pedestrians darted between them, 
 and frustration mounted as traffic ground to a halt.\n\n\nEventually, tow 
 truck operators and first responders stepped in, manually overriding Waymo 
 systems to clear the streets. The ride-hailing service suspended its 
 operations across the Bay Area through Sunday evening. \n\nThe episode has 
 rattled transportation experts and elected officials, who worry that 
 Waymo’s rapid scale-up in San Francisco is outpacing its ability to 
 respond to major emergencies.\n\n\nOn Monday, Supervisors Bilal Mahmood and 
 Alan Wong called for a hearing into Waymo’s emergency response. In an 
 interview with the Chronicle, Mahmood said the immobilized Waymos slowed 
 down the fire department’s response to two separate fires  — one at the 
 original PG&E substation and another in Chinatown.\n\n“San Franciscans 
 deserve answers into why Waymo was unable to handle such a large-scale 
 infrastructure failure, and what they plan to do about it in the future to 
 mitigate these types of impacts,” Mahmood said.\n\n\nMayor Daniel Lurie 
 said, during a Monday press conference, that the city had been in 
 communication with Waymo during the weekend outage.\n\n“I made a call to 
 the Waymo CEO and asked them to get the cars off the road immediately,” 
 Lurie said. “They were very understanding. … but we need them to be 
 more proactive.”\n\nWaymo, owned by Google parent Alphabet, began 
 deploying its cars in San Francisco in 2023, and has grown its local fleet 
 to around 1,000 cars. Earlier this year, state regulators approved the 
 company to expand its driverless taxi service to the Peninsulaand parts of 
 the South Bay, extending as far as San Jose.\n\nSome say that Saturday’s 
 fiasco could be a make-or-break moment for the company, comparing it to a 
 2023 incident involving rival Cruise, when 10 Cruise driverless cars 
 blocked traffic in North Beach. Cruise blamed the backup on “wireless 
 connectivity issues” created by the influx of concertgoers at the Outside 
 Lands music festival.\n\nA Waymo vehicle sits idling at an intersection 
 with no operating traffic lights due to power outages, in San Francisco on 
 Saturday.\n\nA Waymo vehicle sits idling at an intersection with no 
 operating traffic lights due to power outages, in San Francisco on 
 Saturday.\n\nJeff Chiu/Associated Press\n\nIn a statement, Waymo pointed to 
 widespread gridlock citywide. \n\n“While the failure of the utility 
 infrastructure was significant, we are committed to ensuring our technology 
 adjusts to traffic flow during such events,” a Waymo spokesperson said in 
 a statement. “We are focused on rapidly integrating the lessons learned 
 from this event, and are committed to earning and maintaining the trust of 
 the communities we serve every day.”\n\nWaymo says it maintains a 24/7 
 emergency response hotline for police and fire officials and equips 
 vehicles with two-way voice communication, allowing first responders to 
 speak directly with remote human operators to pull the vehicles off the 
 roads. \n\nSaturday’s outage, however, raised a central question city 
 leaders now want answered: whether those safeguards are enough to get a 
 large volume of cars off the streets quickly when multiple systems fail at 
 once.\n\n“The concern around autonomous vehicles is whether it’s 
 possible for them to scale further without severely disrupting emergency 
 operations in a real emergency, rather than what was a fairly minor power 
 outage,” said former SFMTA director Jeffrey Tumlin in an interview 
 Monday. “What happens in an even worse disaster — like a major 
 earthquake — if there are even more autonomous vehicles on our streets 
 that all brick at the same time?”\n\nSelf-driving vehicles, he said, are 
 “a fragile system built on top of other fragile systems” — namely, 
 PG&E’s power grid and the 5G networks, which are put under strain in 
 situations like the weekend’s power outage. \n\nSan Francisco is limited 
 in how much it can regulate Waymo itself. In California, autonomous vehicle 
 testing and deployment are regulated primarily by the state.\n\nWilliam 
 Riggs, a University of San Francisco engineering professor who studies 
 autonomous vehicles, said the failure may not lie with the cars themselves 
 so much as the ecosystem supporting them.\n\n“It’s not necessarily a 
 vehicle technology failure — the vehicle is doing what it’s supposed to 
 do,” Riggs said. “We should step back and look at the systemic issues 
 as opposed to the vehicle issues.” \n\nState Sen. Scott Wiener agreed, 
 saying that the blame lies primarily with PG&E, while also calling on Waymo 
 to take steps to ensure that the problem wouldn’t happen 
 again.\n\n“This is on PG&E for allowing this meltdown to happen because 
 of the company’s inability to maintain its infrastructure,” said 
 Wiener, who is currently running to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi. “When the 
 power goes out, dangerous things happen on many levels, and one of the 
 problems it led to was this Waymo situation.”\n\nBoth Google and Waymo 
 have contributed to Wiener’s campaigns in the past.\n\nWiener and Riggs 
 see the moment as a learning opportunity for Waymo, with the hopes that it 
 can adjust its errors ahead of any more serious disasters.\n\n“This is 
 part of the grand experiment we’re all in,” Riggs said. “We can see 
 what happens in these types of situations, and now we can adjust and make 
 sure it doesn’t happen in the future.”\n\nBut not everyone wants to be 
 a guinea pig in Waymo’s lab. \n\n“Public safety must be prioritized 
 over corporate experimentation,” said Joseph Augusto, a San Francisco 
 Uber driver and member of the California Gig Workers Union, in a statement. 
 “If Waymo vehicles can’t operate safely during emergencies like power 
 outages, their permits should be suspended until they can prove, without 
 question, that they won’t put drivers, passengers, pedestrians, or first 
 responders in harm’s way.”\n\nDec 23, 2025\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2026/01/07/18882622.php
SUMMARY:SF Action - Shut the Robo Taxis Down NOW!
LOCATION:Waymo Depot\n201 Toland St.\nSan Francisco
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2026/01/07/18882622.php
DTSTART:20260114T200000Z
DTEND:20260114T210000Z
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