Autonomous Trucks
The Transportation Trades Department for the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is spending its Tuesday telling the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce subcommittee that autonomous vehicles. Labor leaders have become increasingly concerned by the massive layoffs that will likely accompany the proliferation of electric vehicles, which require fewer components to assemble. But AVs have played second fiddle until fairly recently, with truckers doing most of the heavy lifting themselves. The Alphabet-owned (Google) firm has already started applying for permits to charge customers for rides in its self-driving vehicles, though the company ironically opted to stop using the term “self-driving” at the start of 2021. Any vehicle that is under the 10,000-pound threshold that will travel on public roads must be properly regulated.”[Image: Vitpho/Shutterstock]