The announcement, made Tuesday, follows a state law passed last year that granted California drivers the right to unionize — a significant shift for workers who have long been classified as independent contractors rather than employees, a distinction that typically excludes them from collective bargaining protections.

The Public Employment Relations Board confirmed last week that the newly formed California Gig Workers Union had gathered signatures from at least 30% of the state’s active ride-hailing drivers, meeting the threshold required to represent drivers statewide. California becomes only the second state, after Massachusetts, to allow such organizing, and Illinois passed similar legislation just last week.

Drivers and leaders from the Service Employees International Union gathered at a press conference in Los Angeles to mark the milestone, laying out plans to eventually negotiate over longstanding driver grievances — including sudden deactivation from the apps, stagnant pay, and the opaque algorithms that dictate how much work drivers receive and how much they earn.

Vikaas Shanker, a Fresno-based driver who has emerged as a leader in the new union, described the isolating nature of gig work under the current system. “Uber and Lyft systems silo and separate us drivers from each other,” he said. “As we’ve been engaging in conversations with drivers all across the state … I’ve realized that I’m not on my own in my struggles.”

According to Riko Mendez, chief elected officer of SEIU Local 521 in San José, California is home to roughly 350,000 ride-hailing drivers. Mendez told CalMatters that union organizers have spent recent months preparing members for the bargaining table and hope to sit down with Uber and Lyft before the end of the year.

The formation of the union marks a watershed moment in a yearslong labor fight that has played out largely through ballot measures, court battles and legislative maneuvering, as gig companies have fiercely resisted efforts to reclassify or empower their driver workforce. Whether the union can translate its new legal standing into concrete gains for drivers — particularly around pay transparency and app-based terminations — will likely become clear as bargaining sessions get underway in the coming months.

Original source: CalMatters

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This has been the largest such test of fully autonomous vehicles by any major automaker before 2020 when several companies have said they plan to begin building and deploying such vehicles in higher volumes. Google’s Waymo unit, in comparison, has been testing about 60 self-driving prototypes in four states.

Most of the specially equipped versions of the Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle used by San Francisco-based Lyft, which was testing them in its ride-sharing fleet in several states, one of the sources said. GM has no immediate plans to sell the Bolt AV to individual customers, according to automotive news.

GM executives have said in interviews and investor presentations during the past years; they intend to mass-produce autonomous vehicles and deploy them in ride services fleets. However, GM officials have not revealed details of the scale of production or the timing of the deployment of those vehicles.

GM has previously stated they do not provide specific details on potential future products or technology rollout plans. They have said that their AV technology will appear in an on-demand ride-sharing network application sooner than you might think.”

In my email, to Lyft they declined to comment.
GM’s crosstown rival Ford Motor Co. has said it plans to begin building its first self-driving vehicles at a suburban Detroit plant in late 2020, for deployment in on-demand ride-sharing fleets in 2021. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is providing a small number of Chrysler Pacifica minivans to Waymo, which is converting them for self-driving tests.

GM’s Maven car-sharing operation likely will be involved with Lyft in developing a commercial ride-sharing business around self-driving vehicles such as the Bolt AV, GM executive Mike Ableson stated in a November interview.

I’m assuming the cost of these autonomous vehicles the very early ones, will be six figures; there aren’t very many retail customers that are willing to go out and spend that kind of money. However, it is said that CEO Mary Barra already started building a fully autonomous version of the Bolt EV at its Orion Township plant north of Detroit. Detroit.
GM has tested about 40 Bolt AVs in San Francisco and Scottsdale, Ariz., and plans to extend testing.

GM paid $500 million for a minority stake in Lyft, the second-largest U.S. ride-sharing firm after Uber. It is also said that GM discussed with Lyft founders Logan Green and John Zimmer the prospect of jointly developing a ride-sharing business with self-driving cars.

To make this successful, it is going requires the ability to engineer autonomous systems, to build self-driving vehicles in volume and to deploy them in a ride-sharing fleet. GM in early 2016 acquired Cruise Automation, a San Francisco startup, to help it accelerate the development of self-driving cars. GM also launched a car-sharing business, Maven, which has provided vehicles to Lyft.

I know that Cruise, Lyft, Maven, GM, Ford Chrysler, and a lot of smart people all need to come together to make this happen in the world of self-driving cars.
As for me, I like human Uber drivers.

Good Driving
The Hemet Car Guy

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