On September 15th, New York City Council’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will be holding a hearing on a number of topics that directly affect our industry – the most significant being the possible addition of two new board members to the Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC). If Int 0139-2024 were passed into law, it would amend the city charter to add two new commissioners to the TLC, both of whom would be required to hold a valid TLC driver’s license.
Offering members of a given industry a seat at the table of an agency that regulates it is not a new concept – it’s fairly common in cities across the country – but it would be particularly helpful as autonomous vehicles (AVs) are now being tested on city streets by Waymo and Elon Musk, one of history’s most notorious “disruptors,” has entered the fray.
According to an article in media outlet, Gizmodo, “Tesla is coming in hot in New York City and regulators, legislators and consumers are already pushing back [against] the electric car company’s hiring push for autopilot drivers in NYC, despite holding no permits for that service in the city. Given that Tesla has already spent years fighting federal probes, civil and criminal lawsuits and a host of scrutiny from everyone from the SEC to local politicians, its new push appears to be a further continuation of asking forgiveness later instead of permission up front.”
I think it’s safe to say that AVs are an inevitability, and adding two commissioners to the TLC board will not change that fact. But input from people with direct, meaningful knowledge of operating on NYC’s chaotic streets would be immensely helpful as this complicated process unfolds.
I think it would be worth considering a base owner, along with a TLC-licensed driver, to offer yet another valuable perspective from an industry that is once again being upended by a new technology, but first things first… Laws specifying what an AV actually is and how they can operate in New York are far from comprehensive. In fact, they barely exist. And with the safety of millions of New Yorkers and the financial stability of hundreds of thousands of people at stake, regulators and legislators MUST proceed with caution.
Once again, they will be facing off against companies with seemingly unlimited resources and feeling tremendous pressure from all sides, so I think it’s essential for members of the industry to have more than just a few minutes to air their concerns at a TLC meeting – they deserve to know what’s going on behind closed doors, and can in fact offer insights that would improve public safety and help the transition run more smoothly.
Sam Schwartz, a transportation engineer and former city traffic commissioner, told Crain’s New York Business that he’s skeptical Tesla’s technology can even handle New York City streets.
“Tesla relies on machine vision alone, and I don’t think that’s safe enough, especially considering all the unusual things that happen on New York City streets,” Schwartz explained. “The technology has shown, under autopilot and full self-driving, to crash with an alarming frequency.”
Musk has previously argued that 3D mapping technologies like radar and lidar are too expensive, not as scalable and not necessary for safety – despite the fact that, since the launch of Tesla’s so-called full-self driving (FSD) system in 2020, the technology has been involved in crashes that resulted in at least 44 deaths, according to The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
“It’s a big leap from having technology that requires the driver’s eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel to having technology that can replace a driver altogether,” Matthew Wansley, a Cardozo School of Law professor who specializes in automotive technologies told Crain’s New York Business. “It’s important to understand that where Tesla is today is pretty far away from a safe, functional robotaxi service.”
“These vehicles are programmed to behave, to stop at a red light and to go at a green light,” added Sarah Kaufman, the director of the NYU Rudin Center for Transportation and a TLC commissioner. “But as everyone knows, that’s not how traffic actually functions, and so the vehicles need to be prepared to make split-second decisions.”
Despite the federal investigations, lawsuits and millions of recalls linked to crashes, Tesla is pushing hard to roll out fully autonomous vehicles to make up for stalling vehicle sales, Gizmodo reported. “Tesla’s core business of selling electric vehicles continues to face headwinds… Shareholders and consumers alike have been reacting to Musk’s controversial political comments, which have alienated some potential buyers, while analysts say that his emphasis on the Cybertruck and other high-profile projects has cost Tesla massive amounts of money right as it hemorrhages customers.”
With so much on the line, Musk and Tesla’s “ask forgiveness, not permission” strategy adds significant urgency to so many issues that have yet to be ironed out. Regulators and legislators CAN NOT allow another billionaire to bully his way into New York City’s transportation industry, and one of the best ways to ensure some level of checks and balances would be to give the people who will be directly affected seats at the table. I really hope City Council and the TLC see the potential mess that lies in front of them before they step in it.
