SAN FRANCISCO — The California Teamsters filed a lawsuit against several state agencies and their leaders, including the Department of Motor Vehicles, challenging regulations that permit self-driving trucks on state roads.
The lawsuit claims the agencies bypassed required public input during the rule-making process, undermining transparency and blocking a full review of the regulations' consequences for California's workforce.
At the heart of the challenge is the alleged threat to truck driving jobs. The union said in its filing that the regulations could eliminate positions for more than 200,000 employee semi-truck drivers across California. A similar number of self-employed drivers also face job loss.
The Teamsters argue the rules present an "existential threat" to those workers. The union is seeking a court order to prevent the DMV from enforcing the regulations and a court declaration that the rules were improperly adopted.
The DMV and other state agencies are accused of underestimating the economic impact of autonomous heavy vehicles. The lawsuit cites DMV analyses that valued the cost of data-reporting requirements for companies in the low millions of dollars. The state also claimed self-driving trucks would not eliminate jobs — an assessment the Teamsters directly contest.
Newsom's administration moved forward with the regulations to put autonomous trucks on California roadways, aligning with broader industry efforts to deploy self-driving technology in logistics and transportation.
A ruling for the Teamsters would force the administration to re-evaluate its autonomous vehicle policy and could set a precedent for how labor concerns shape technology regulation in states at the forefront of the issue.
