As a small business owner who depends on the logistics industry to deliver the goods we manufacture, I know our success hinges on a strong supply chain. Widening worker shortages and a steady rise in freight demand are testing the limits of California supply networks. Autonomous trucks can help the state’s small businesses thrive.
Just a few months ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the Legislature’s attempt to ban autonomous trucks in 2023. Now some California lawmakers are again proposing the exact same preemptive AV truck ban. Assembly Bill 2286 would require every AV truck to have a human observer onboard. Given the widespread shortage of workers, this effort would intentionally hamstring and indefinitely delay the deployment of the technology.
California’s unprecedented worker shortage has subsided since 2020’s peak, but our state still maintains the second-highest unemployment rate in the country. In theory, these conditions should help those who are hiring, but that simply is not the case across the board. This pain point is particularly acute for small businesses that rely on trucks.
Unlike many other parts of the economy, the trucker shortage is not a new phenomenon. According to the American Trucking Association, the United States was short 80,000 truck drivers years ago and that number is only set to double within the decade. Trucking is a foundational pillar of the U.S. supply chain, but unfilled gaps can cause major problems for other sectors.
By challenging misconceptions and harnessing home-grown autonomous trucks to work alongside truck drivers, California can alleviate bottlenecks and have a more resilient economy. Small businesses need autonomous trucks, plain and simple.
Furthermore, autonomous trucks can help improve safety on California roads. Early 2023 projections reveal that while roadway fatalities are on track to decline yea-over-year in California, we’re still projected to lose 4,000 lives. That dismal estimate of car crash deaths leaves us ranked second in the nation for that grisly statistic.
Autonomous trucks, meanwhile, can help shift this unsafe status quo. AV trucks are equipped with a litany of high-tech capabilities, providing them with unmatched 360-degree vision and sensors that permit the vehicles to scan, spot and prepare maneuvers from incredibly far away, day or night, far surpassing human vision. Unlike human drivers who engage in speeding, driving distracted, impaired or drowsy, autonomous vehicles are also explicitly designed to avoid these dangerous human driving behaviors that are so prevalent on California roadways.
Beyond improving roadway safety and bolstering the state’s supply chain resilience, AV trucks can also boost sustainability. Real-world testing has shown that the model driving behavior of autonomous trucks and their ability to drive at all hours of the day can help reduce fuel consumption by at least 10%.
As things stand now, however, autonomous trucks cannot operate in California. Rather than supporting the experts at the California Department of Motor Vehicles and the California Highway Patrol as they evaluate AV trucks, AV opponents want to coopt the rulemaking process from safety officials and ban the technology altogether.
All the while, a diverse set of states are harnessing California-made AVs routing from the Georgia coast all the way to Arizona to deliver goods. As our neighbors embrace progress, AB 2286 would legislatively leapfrog safety officials’ regulatory deliberations on AV trucks and put California behind by codifying resistance to innovation.
Trucking is a tough job. Filling vacancies can be just as hard. As Californians learned over the past few years, supply bottlenecks at our ports and distribution hubs can reverberate across California and then the entire U.S. economy.
By rejecting a preemptive ban and unlocking California innovations like autonomous vehicles, our state can help pave a pathway toward a progressive future that reduces the fragility of our supply network, improves road safety and cuts emissions in our state and beyond.
Paul Cramer is vice president and general manager of Star Milling Co., a producer of animal feed based in Perris.
