Why unions are becoming a problem for self-driving cars (www.axios.com)

Labor unions across the U.S. are pushing back against expanding robotaxi and autonomous trucking programs, arguing the technology threatens safety and millions of driving jobs. Local groups from New York’s Transport Workers Union to Tukwila’s Drivers Union and the national Teamsters have publicly opposed driverless testing and urged a federal rule that would require a human safety operator — ideally someone holding a commercial driver’s license (CDL) — in every autonomous vehicle. That friction comes as Waymo and Tesla operate commercial self-driving rides in cities such as Phoenix, San Francisco and Austin (Waymo is expanding tests to Detroit, Las Vegas and San Diego), and Aurora runs driverless freight routes between Houston–Dallas and El Paso–Fort Worth, touting a spotless on-time and safety record so far. The dispute matters for AI/ML deployment, regulation and labor: unions want a national standard to avoid a patchwork of state rules and to protect jobs in trucking and transit, while companies argue autonomy improves safety, accessibility and efficiency. Technically, the debate centers on whether current perception, planning and redundancy systems are mature enough to replace trained human operators and whether operators should meet CDL standards. Politically, the Teamsters’ influence could push the White House or Congress to mandate human-in-the-loop requirements, which would slow full driverless rollouts and reshape commercialization strategies for autonomous vehicle developers.