As Waymo expands to San Diego, rideshare drivers say they're concerned about safety

Driverless car companies like Waymo have boomed in popularity over the past couple of years, and, despite not having reached San Diego yet, rideshare drivers said they don’t want the same safety concerns they’ve noticed across the state to occur in local neighborhoods.

The California Gig Workers Union reports Waymos have illegally passed stopped school buses, entered active police scenes and in one case, struck a child by a Santa Monica elementary school. The drivers said they want to be clear: Their beef with Waymo has nothing to do with them being the competition.

“America is great because we can compete,” said Uber and Lyft driver Alberto Godinez. “I’m happy to see this new technology. I mean, I have no problem with that.”

California Gig Workers union organizer Jesus Garcia said the issue is with driverless-car regulation.

“Our streets are not testing grounds,” Garcia said.

It’s why California state Senator Dave Cortese introduced Senate Bill 1246.

“What SB1246 does is, it makes sure that whoever’s operating an autonomous vehicle understands California traffic laws and also requires that whoever’s operating those autonomous vehicle, there needs to be a cap, because they cannot be operating hundreds of autonomous vehicles [with] one person,” Garcia said.

Waymo officials believe the union has the wrong idea, saying that its agents aren’t operating hundreds of vehicles but, rather, agents are on standby. If an incident occurs, then the next available agent is assigned to handle it.

Garcia said that’s not good enough.

“Right now, what happens is that if there’s an accident, first responders come in, and they’re pretty much doing Waymo’s job,” Garcia said. “They have to move. They got to get on the vehicle. They talk to the operator that’s on standby, and then they say, ‘OK, turn on the vehicle and move it to the side.’ We don’t need our tax money funding that.”

SB 1246 has just been introduced. It still has to go through committee hearings before it’s voted on.