Autonomous Car Backlash Kicks Off In Upstate New York

While self-driving technology may be the way of the future for most people, some still see it as a threat to their way of life.

Case in point, the Upstate Transportation Association thinks that autonomous vehicles will do nothing but eliminate thousands of jobs and in turn, damage the local economy.

“Large groups of workers are going to recognize that their jobs are threatened. Today it may be the taxi driver. Tomorrow, it’s all the truckers. Now that it’s been expressed in [upstate New York], we’ll see a lot of it,” stated author Wendell Wallach.

Despite such concerns, the state of NY is still considering allowing ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft to operate, though currently they’re only allowed in New York City. In the long run though, the Upstate Transportation Association thinks that both Uber and Lyft will eventually transition to fully autonomous cars, and therefor, wipe out thousands of jobs.

“It doesn’t do anything for the local economy to have driverless cars,” said John Tomassi, president of the Upstate Transportation Association, which represents taxi, livery, medical transportation and paratransit fleets. “I’m sure there’s a little bit of job creation, but nothing that will match the number of jobs lost.”

Furthermore, The Independent Drivers Guild, which represents NYC’s 45,000 for-hire drivers, declared that they will aggressively fight to protect current NY laws, which would in turn mean banning fully-autonomous cars.

Still, according to CNN, Tomassi’s call for a ban on self-driving cars has been met with silence, as there are no provisions offering safety nets to drivers that may end up without a job.