AV Snub: School Bus Drivers Close The Doors On Autonomous Vehicles

ALBANY --- New York’s school bus drivers want to put the brakes on Gov. Hochul’s support for more autonomous vehicle testing around the state, as concerns continue to rise about the safety of the vehicles and their impact on workers.

Leaders of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181, which represents school bus drivers, mechanics and attendants in New York City, Long Island, parts of the Hudson Valley and New Jersey, don't support Gov. Hochul's bid to expand AVs when street safety is already a concern.

"It's a computer, right? There's a lot of factors we have got to think about, we have children who run on and off the bus," Tomas Fret, president of Local 1181, told Streetsblog. "They don't run into the street, but it can very well happen, and a computer could shut down at any time. What happens if it shuts down right in front of the bus?"

Safety isn't the only issue that was raised by drivers. Carolyn Rinaldi, vice president of Local 1181, added that she opposes AVs on the simple grounds that it will affect her workforce.

"I mean, who knows what they're thinking," she said. "[I] feel like they're looking to replace all of us."

But at the state Legislature's transportation budget hearing, Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Mark Schroeder defended Hochul's proposal on the grounds that the New York City pilot has shown that Waymo's driverless cabs are safe.

"DMV and State Police and our other partners throughout the state [are] comfortable ... that this is working and that at some point in time we need to go to the next level," he told lawmakers.

Lawmakers aren't fully behind the governor's proposal to allow municipalities outside of New York City to begin their own pilots with autonomous taxi companies. Assembly Member Emily Gallagher (D-Brooklyn) is against the idea while state Senate Transportation Chair Jeremy Cooney (D-Rochester) is a full-on booster. (Cooney is on the advisory board of the libertarian tech group Chamber of Progress, which supports a bid by Gov. Hochul to lower the cost of auto insurance that street safety advocates have slammed as an anti-safety measure.)

The name Waymo is often used interchangeably with "autonomous vehicle" because of the company's standing in the industry. It has been piloting driver-less (and also passenger-less) in New York City since October, albeit with a person sitting behind the wheel ... just in case.

But its future in the five boroughs is uncertain, as existing rideshare outfits and taxi drivers see the company as a threat. Street safety advocates aren't sold on the technology's ability to properly recognize pedestrians and cyclists (especially at night).

And the National Transportation Board is investigating Waymo after a series of incidents in Austin, where Waymo vehicles failed repeatedly to stop for school buses as they loaded and unloaded children.

The company said it patched the issue in November, but there were at least four more violations afterward.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened its own investigation into Waymo after one of its cars hit a California child near an elementary school.

Waymo pushed back on claims that its products are unsafe in light of the investigations and public concern.

"Our vehicles have 12 times fewer crashes involving injuries to pedestrians and 10 times fewer serious injury or worse crashes compared to drivers where we operate," Waymo spokesperson Ethan Teicher said in a statement. "Our technology has driven nearly 200 million fully autonomous miles on public roads to date, and provides more than 400,000 rides every week across San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, Atlanta and Miami."