A formal rulemaking to authorize autonomous trucks on California roads would pave a path toward a highly efficient transportation and delivery system for Hispanic-owned businesses and the consumers we serve.
A pair of all-electric big-rig trucks, built by Tesla, are ready for the road. (Photo: Steve Jurvetson, via Wikipedia)Never mind there are few on the market, or that keeping them moving requires a nonexistent network of chargers, California wants truckers to hurry up and replace diesel big rigs with versions that run on batteries or hydrogen. Regulations to achieve the transitions are not yet complete. The California Air Resources Board is gathering public opinion on the latest iteration and a subsequent draft is anticipated in the spring.
Farm workers tending the fields in the Salinas Valley. (Photo: Rightdx, Shutterstock)OPINION: A recent opinion column in Capitol Weekly (Jan. 7, “Moderate Democrats: the slaves of Big Oil?”) was not the real story of last year’s SB 350, an effort to reduce petroleum-based transportation fuels in California by 50 percent. Ironically, the real story of SB 350 is the first line of the author’s eighth paragraph: “The story of inequality in our state is not just one of economics…”