Frey’s robotaxi veto stands

Minneapolis’ fight over driverless cars isn’t over, even after the City Council failed Oct. 15 to override Mayor Jacob Frey’s veto of an ordinance requiring human monitors in robotaxis. The ordinance’s author has already moved to restart the process, and a new report estimates that the state’s rideshare drivers, most of them Black and immigrant workers, generate hundreds of millions of dollars for Minnesota’s economy each year.

The council passed the ordinance 7-6 on Oct. 1, and Frey vetoed it the next day. The policy, called Workers Drive Minneapolis, would have required human monitors in the driver’s seat of any commercial autonomous vehicle operating in the city, including Waymos, Tesla’s Cybercabs and Amazon’s Zoox.

“Requiring a driver in a driverless car doesn’t make sense,” Frey said in a statement. He added that the city is open to new technology and transportation options, and that “thoughtful regulation for safety is necessary, but not through a backdoor ban.”

The council voted 7-5 to override the veto, short of the nine votes needed. Immediately after the vote, Council Member Robin Wonsley, the ordinance’s lead author, gave notice that she will introduce a new proposal to regulate commercial autonomous vehicles. Wonsley has argued that unregulated robotaxis would create safety risks, disrupt traffic and displace thousands of rideshare workers in the Twin Cities. She co-authored the ordinance with Council Vice President Jamal Osman and Council Members Jason Chavez and Aurin Chowdhury.

Frey has said he is willing to work with council members on another ordinance addressing autonomous rideshare safety without what he considers a practical ban on driverless service.

The ordinance’s supporters said it was meant to protect the jobs of drivers who could be replaced by driverless fleets. A report released Oct. 6 by North Star Policy, a Minnesota policy organization, puts annual figures on that workforce. It estimates that the state’s rideshare drivers earn about $209 million in wages, spend about $211 million on job-related expenses like gas, insurance and car maintenance, and support $561 million in total economic activity in Minnesota.

That activity supports about 2,500 jobs beyond the drivers themselves and generates about $116 million in tax revenue, including about $43 million for state and local governments, according to the report. The authors described their estimates as conservative, since they are based on the state’s minimum pay rates for drivers.

The report draws on a 2024 study commissioned by the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, which found that 61% of the state’s rideshare drivers are immigrants and 71% are people of color, including 60% who identify as Black. Drivers are more than two and a half times as likely as the average Minnesota worker to live in a household below 200% of the federal poverty line, the study found.

“The livelihoods at stake belong to immigrant Minnesotans with relatively little financial cushion to absorb the sudden loss of their primary income,” the report said.

If driverless fleets replace human drivers, the report argues, much of that economic activity would leave Minnesota and go to the out-of-state companies that own the vehicles.

Waymo, which opposes the ordinance, began testing its technology in Minnesota last fall. It is not yet offering rides to passengers. In a statement to the MSR in September, before the council vote, Adam Lane, Waymo’s state and local public policy manager, called the proposal “a de facto ban on autonomous vehicles.”

“With nearly 500 Minnesotans killed in crashes in 2024 and women and people with disabilities facing persistent safety concerns, current options aren’t enough,” Lane said. “That is why Minnesota chapters of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Epilepsy Foundation, the National Federation of the Blind, American Council for the Blind, the Blinded Veterans Association, and others support bringing Waymo to Minneapolis to address these safety and mobility gaps.”

Waymo said its vehicles are supported by workers who charge, clean and maintain the fleet. It said that in Nashville, it and Lyft’s Flexdrive are adding more than 70 jobs, many going to former Lyft drivers. The company said there is no evidence so far of significant impact on people who drive for a living in cities where its vehicles operate, though it acknowledged experts say it is still too early to tell whether robotaxis are affecting driver wages. Waymo also cited its own data showing its vehicles are involved in far fewer injury crashes than human drivers in the cities where it operates.

The Consumer Choice Center, a Washington, D.C.-based consumer group that supports expanding access to autonomous vehicles, praised the veto.

“Autonomous vehicles can increase access to reliable transportation options for consumers, improve road safety due to their lower accident rates, and even create jobs in the area,” said James Czerniawski, the group’s head of emerging technology policy.

St. Paul is taking up the issue as well. Council Member Rebecca Noecker has brought forward a resolution to study the impact of autonomous rideshare vehicles on the city’s streets, public safety and workforce.

Minnesota does not currently have specific rules regulating driverless cars. A spokesperson for Frey has said the mayor will look to the state to regulate autonomous vehicles.

The North Star Policy report frames that choice as a decision for policymakers. They can let out-of-state companies pull hundreds of millions of dollars a year out of Minnesota’s working communities, or they can protect the livelihoods the rideshare workforce sustains.

Jasmine McBride welcomes reader responses at jmcbride@spokesman-recorder.com.