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   Safe Street Rebel (safestreetrebel@sfba.social)'s status on Tuesday, 11-Jul-2023 10:31:42 JST Safe Street Rebel

   Another huge problem with AVs is not about the technology, but about corporate impunity. Corporations expect to be above the law, to "move fast and break things".

   Self-driving cars can't be cited for traffic violations. They share as little incident data as possible, so we only know the extent of the problems they cause from the news or social media. They are somehow exempt from accessibility requirements, and won't even pull to the curb to drop people off or pick them up.

   Anecdotally, they seem to have become more aggressive as soon as they have started taking customers. Suddenly they're forcing pedestrians out of crosswalks, for instance. But they don't have to tell the public about any such changes.

   We know that there's no market for safe cars. Cars are designed to speed, and Tesla "self-driving" already has a mode for breaking the law. If customers expect cars to drive fast and recklessly, and it's profitable for the corporations to oblige, that's what we're going to get.

   #weekOfCone

   • Embed this notice
     Safe Street Rebel (safestreetrebel@sfba.social)'s status on Tuesday, 11-Jul-2023 10:31:41 JST Safe Street Rebel

     in reply to

     On the subject of corporations and the law, they might be above the law, but they also expect the law to promote their interests.

     There are no regulations around self-driving cars, but they think this lack of regulation shouldn't apply to actual humans. Nobody has been able to find a law that is broken by putting a cone on a stationary, empty car. The self-driving car companies have still demanded the cops put a stop to this.

     Abolisyonista repeated this.
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     Safe Street Rebel (safestreetrebel@sfba.social)'s status on Tuesday, 11-Jul-2023 10:31:41 JST Safe Street Rebel

     in reply to

     Remember how jaywalking was invented by car companies to avoid having to address their safety problems? Public space was taken away from pedestrians and reserved for corporate interests by the law. There's already talk of how laws that protect pedestrians are inconvenient for self-driving cars.

     Recently, gig companies like Uber and Lyft spent tens of millions of dollars to push through laws that allow them to better exploit workers.

     What new laws are self-driving car companies going to introduce? What do you take for granted today that will be criminalized tomorrow?

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     Safe Street Rebel (safestreetrebel@sfba.social)'s status on Tuesday, 11-Jul-2023 10:31:42 JST Safe Street Rebel

     in reply to

     This Thursday, the CUPC is being asked to override the concerns of the city of San Francisco and expand this barely regulated program, giving the city no power to control the experiment these corporations are inflicting on us.

     Even if you're pro AV, you're probably imagining an AV subject to regulations, made for the benefit of the public. That's not what we're getting right now. In fact, they’re trying to push ahead and expand before any regulations can be written.

     This is why we're doing this now, the week before the CUPC hearing:

     https://tinyurl.com/WeekOfCone

     (which links to https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/events-and-meetings/cpuc-voting-meeting-2023-07-13)

     #weekOfCone