(SACRAMENTO) – The following is a joint statement from Teamsters Joint Council 7 and Teamsters Joint Council 42 regarding the recent veto of the CARS (California Automotive Regulatory Standards) Package. The CARS Package was composed of Assembly Bill 2286, which would have required human operators in any vehicle over 10,000 pounds, and Assembly Bill 3061, which would have increased accident reporting and transparency requirements for companies operating autonomous vehicles (AVs).

“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.

“Over 90 percent 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.”

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