Driverless Cars: One More Way to Eliminate Jobs

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

This past Thursday the California Public Utilities Commission which is headquartered in San Francisco voted to allow the two "driverless" car companies currently operating taxi-like services in San Francisco on a limited basis to expand their services.  The specialized vehicles are also referred to as "autonomous vehicles" and "robotaxis" in various news stories and transportation literature.  Four of five commissioners were present for the meeting and vote, and only one of the four voted in opposition to the proposal.  

The one commission member who voted in opposition to the expansion cited protests from area first responders as her reason for opposing the move.  Apparently driverless vehicles are not always at the top of their game in emergency situations, and they sometimes fail to recognize emergency tape barriers.

The two companies involved in the decision are "Waymo" owned by Google and "Cruise" owned by General Motors.  Waymo is apparently not currently permitted to charge for its rides, and Cruise has to operate in a restricted area on a restricted time schedule.  Waymo told the commission that it currently has a wait list of 100,000 individuals wishing to make use of its service.

One of the three commission members who voted to allow the two companies to expand their service tire-print in the San Francisco area cited an improvement in service to customers - people in the area who require transport.   It was noted that the service would be less expensive than traditional taxi service and would in some cases be less particular than ride-share options like Uber.  (An argument was made that some ride-share drivers declined service to the blind because they did not want to transport their assistance dogs.)

One thing that did not seem to work its way into the conversation at the meeting on Thursday was the impact that driverless cars have on jobs in the city.   I'm not a math genius, but it would seem to me that every driverless car working the streets of San Francisco as a taxi would be one less employed San Franciscan who could be working either as a licensed taxi operator or in an entrepreneurial role as a self-employed ride-share operator.

The same principle applies to automated checkouts at grocery stores and big box stores.  I don't use them, but the people who do are taking food off of somebody else's table.  Those are jobs that could be done by humans.

And just in the last couple of weeks Oregon, or at least parts of Oregon, went back to allowing customers at gas stations to pump their own gas.    A couple of decades ago Oregon had prohibited customers pumping their own gas - by state law - an innovation that gave work to thousands of individuals as gas pump attendants, but now the state is backtracking and those jobs will be quickly disappearing..

Nobody is coming for my job, because I don't have one - but they may be coming for yours.  Think about that the next time you hop in a driverless taxi, pump your own gas, or check yourself out at Walmart!  All of that convenience and savings comes with a cost, and while it may not come out of your pocket today, some day it just might.