Autonomous vehicles driving more conflict

Aug 29, 2023

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GRINDING THEIR GEARS: Driverless-car drama is magnifying the heat on Gov. Gavin Newsom and California regulators.

A dispute over the home-grown autonomous vehicle industry is rippling nationally, with Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien assailing Newsom today for what he called “catering to Big Tech” by opposing a bill requiring human safety drivers onboard autonomous trucks. AB 316 has been a priority for California unions, and O’Brien’s broadside demonstrates the broader economic stakes.

“Our elected officials must stop selling out to Big Tech and Corporate America,” O’Brien said in a statement, which emphasized internal polling showing that people are wary of robo-vehicles and prefer a human near the wheel.

The trucking bill has cruised through the Legislature on broad bipartisan votes. Supportive lawmakers have cited San Francisco’s AV struggles to argue against a heedless trucking expansion, and they’ve asserted that state regulators are too in thrall to the industry to oversee it properly. That skepticism thrums throughout a new letter from lawmakers to the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Public Utilities Commission.

A missive from six Assembly members, led by Assembly Committee on Communications and Conveyance Chair Tasha Boerner, demands more info and warns against “compromising near-term safety with the prospects of long-term safety and economic benefits.” It cautions that “divergent decisions” are “not instilling public confidence,” noting the DMV had Cruise halve its fleet just days after the PUC approved a San Francisco robotaxi expansion.

The next stop for AB 316 is the Senate Appropriations Committee, which will reveal hundreds of bills’ fates during a Friday hearing. Fans and detractors of autonomous vehicles are watching closely to see whether Newsom’s intervention changes the equation.

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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

AFTERNOON CONSTITUTIONAL: Newsom’s quest to put gun restrictions into the U.S. Constitution through an amendment easily cleared the first of many hurdles today.

The governor has made advancing the amendment a priority for the end of the legislative year. A few months after Newsom unveiled the long-shot plan and started fundraising, SJR-7 was voted out of the Senate Public Safety Committee and onto the Senate floor. A profusion of Democratic co-authors indicates Newsom is all but certain to get the votes he needs. The governor and lawmakers want to both nationalize California's stringent gun laws and shield them against a conservative Supreme Court.

But California is the easy part; enlisting the dozens of other states needed to trigger a convention is another matter. And Newsom has encountered resistance from progressives, good government groups, and legal scholars who fear a convention would open a constitutional can of worms by allowing a surge of conservative proposals. A convention “could be used by malevolent forces to upend our democracy,” warned the League of Women Voters of California’s Dora Rose.

Multiple lawmakers cited similar concerns, which Sen. Scott Wiener invoked in declining to back the resolution. “We know the same extremists that have completely rewritten the Second Amendment,” the San Francisco Democrat said, “also would like to rewrite reproductive health access, LGBTQ rights, they want to get rid of the separation of church and state, they want to undermine voting rights.”

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ON THE BEATS

FINISH THIS SENTENCE — California’s continued shift away from stringent criminal penalties is the subject of an end-of-session clash. Law enforcement groups rallied today against legislation that would allow resentencing of inmates who were convicted to life without parole on special-circumstances charges.

Opponents like the Crime Victims United and the California District Attorneys Association — joined by Republicans and a pair of moderate Democrats, Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains and Sacramento Sheriff Jim Cooper, a former state lawmaker — warned SB 94 could free some of the state’s most dangerous offenders. The bill passed the Senate in May with a single vote to spare.

Such sentencing disputes aren’t confined to Sacramento as cities grapple with crime fears. Progressive Alameda District Attorney Pamela Price has sought to eschew special-circumstances charges and life without parole — the kinds of decisions that have fueled an incipient recall push.

ILLEGAL CANNABIS: California cities and counties that want additional assistance from the state government in cracking down on illegal cannabis production or sales can now tap into a new state program.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta today announced the launch of the Cannabis Administrative Prosecutor Program, which will give cities and counties access to additional attorneys, investigative resources and help with administrative work related to cannabis enforcement.

It’s another attempt by the state to address the vast amount of illicit cannabis activity — cultivation, sales within the state and exports out of the state — that still occurs nearly six years after recreational legalization.

The CAPP will be administered through the California Department of Justice and focus its efforts on administrative enforcement and nuisance abatement through issuing citations, abatement orders, violation notices and more. — Paul Demko

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AROUND CALIFORNIA

— Noncitizens who have been convicted of certain crimes and complete their sentences are typically deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But California prison authorities have been taking a more aggressive, and illegal, approach by “routinely” forwarding the cases of prisoners who are U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents — even when their own records indicate they shouldn’t.

— Close quarters: A micro-unit apartment building has opened in San Diego’s North Park neighborhood, featuring 94 units that average 406 square feet and is designed for “car-free” lifestyles with just 28 spots. Average studio rent: $2,434 a month.

— Firefighters are getting little protection from wildfire smoke that can lead to cancer and other ailments, even as annual blazes become larger and more common.

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MIXTAPE

— “San Francisco DA Files new corruption charges in probe with FBI,” by the San Francisco Standard’s Josh Koehn.

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