The Brotherhood of Teamsters is urging U.S. auto safety regulators to reject a petition by General Motors to grant an exemption to Cruise, the automaker’s autonomous vehicle business, that would allow it to build the Origin AV without traditional vehicle safety standards.
Cruise’s Origin is designed specifically for autonomous driving, meaning it has no steering wheel or pedals. In early September, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said the company was close to getting the green light from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which would allow Cruise to begin mass production of Origins and begin putting them on public roads.
The Teamsters’ pushback against Cruise, and self-driving vehicles in general, is a trademark of the union, which recently criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom for vetoing a bill banning the use of self-driving trucks on public roads in the state.
“It is dangerous for other motorists, pedestrians, and middle-class jobs for Cruz to make a request like this from NHTSA,” said Sean O’Brien, the union’s president, citing a series of “deeply troubling” recent incidents. San Francisco.
“Allowing this company to expand its fleet to put more ‘advanced’ self-driving cars on the road would be a disaster for everyone.”
NHTSA did not respond to TechCrunch with a timeline for its decision on GM’s petition. The agency is expected to announce A Making new rules This fall about the deployment of non-compliant autonomous vehicles, which could pave the way for federal regulation around autonomous vehicles.
GM’s petition, filed in February 2021, seeks exemptions from six Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) for origin, specifically for parts required in vehicles manufactured and sold in the United States. For example, all vehicles must have windshield wiping and washing systems so human drivers can see the road clearly. Vehicles must also have a transmission that follows a specific parking, reversing, and driving sequence. Since the original was designed without a human driver in mind, there is no actual transmission.
The public comment period on the waivers ended in August 2022. Cruz said Wednesday that the majority of public comments submitted on his petition were positive.
The AV company has faced a lot of pressure recently after California regulators granted Cruise a permit to expand its commercial robot services across San Francisco 24/7. In the weeks following that hearing, Cruise’s vehicles were involved in a number of incidents involving robotaxis malfunctioning, stopping in the middle of the street, and colliding with a fire truck, prompting the California Department of Motor Vehicles to order Cruise to immediately take half of its robots. Its off the roads. The DMV is also investigating “recent incidents of concern.”
In December, NHTSA opened a formal safety investigation into Cruise vehicles after reports of two injuries in rear-end crashes. Cruise vehicles may apply inappropriately hard braking or become immobilized, NHTSA said.
“Given the fundamental questions raised regarding Petitioner’s safety record, and continued failures to detail components of Origin’s operations, at this time we do not believe GM/Cruise can operate an FMVSS-exempt vehicle to the level of safety standards required by law.” “Federal law and regulation,” the Teamsters wrote in a statement.
The Teamsters’ opposition to Cruise Origin also comes at a time when unions hold the microphone. The United Auto Workers union is currently striking General Motors, Ford and Stellantis at plants across US President Joe Biden, whose administration oversees the NHTSA, Join the picket line this week.