California's Teamsters call for Waymo ban, saying driverless cars threaten safety and jobs

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The Teamsters of California is calling for the suspension of Waymo’s operations in the state amid growing safety and job security concerns.The union, which has 250,000 members across dozens of industries, called on the California Public Utilities Commission on Monday to indefinitely suspend the driverless car company’s license to operate.

The demand comes less than two weeks after a Waymo self-driving taxi struck a child near a Santa Monica elementary school, triggering a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigation.In a statement, Teamsters California co-chairs Peter Finn and Victor Mineros called the incident a “horrifying wake-up call for California policymakers who have repeatedly ignored the growing list of red flags concerning robotaxis.” Business A Waymo driverless taxi in Santa Monica struck a child last week while traveling around six mph.The child, who ran out from behind a large SUV to cross the street, wasn’t injured in the collision.

The Waymo had been traveling at 17 miles per hour before the child appeared and reduced its speed to 6 miles per hour before contact was made.“We are committed to improving road safety, both for our riders and all those with whom we share the road,” Waymo said in a statement last week about the accident.

“Our peer-reviewed model shows that a fully attentive human driver in this same situation would have made contact with the pedestrian at approximately 14 mph.”Waymo has been the subject of previous NHTSA investigations and recalls following collisions.In December, motionless Waymo vehicles clogged San Francisco streets after a power outage.

“Imagine a scenario where more and more of these vehicles are on the street and there’s an earthquake,” said Finn of Teamsters California in an interview.“There’s people trying to evacuate, there’s emergency response, and these things can’t move at...