Self-driving setbacks: AV companies bruised in California showdowns

SAN FRANCISCO — Delays, defeat and dystopia.

Tuesday marked a sobering and perhaps seminal milepost in efforts to deploy and expand the presence of autonomous vehicles in California.

In the morning, the California Public Utilities Commission again delayed a vote on commercial robotaxi applications from Cruise and Waymo. Cruise wants to expand and Waymo wants to begin service in San Francisco.

In the afternoon, a state Senate subcommittee unanimously advanced legislation that would prohibit self-driving trucks from operating on the state’s roads.

In between, Jeffrey Tumlin, director of transportation at the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency, said current deployments on city streets have sown havoc. He warned that without cooperation from self-driving technology companies, self-driving taxis could cause “dystopic scenarios” related to traffic and safety.

Tumlin sketched a troubling portrait of everyday problems that have knotted traffic, upset first responders and concerned transit riders. His assessment was part of his keynote address Tuesday at the Automated Road Transportation Symposium, an annual gathering of top industry, academic and governmental insiders hosted by the Transportation Research Board.

He has aired concerns before, but they came Tuesday amid a fresh barrage of other forces shaping both public opinion and policy related to self-driving technology in California.

Read the full story here.

— Pete Bigelow