Legislation could stall company’s effort to get autonomous trucks on California highways
Marketplace All-in-One
Marketplace
4.5 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 7 August 2023
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Self-driving technology company Aurora Innovation has plans to commercialize autonomous trucks by the end of next year. So far, the company seems to be on that path in Texas. Here in California, where the company is partly headquartered and has long incubated much of its technology, it’s a different story. The company’s home state may push back on its innovations with California State Assembly Bill 316, which would prohibit any self-driving trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds from hitting the road without a trained human operator behind the wheel. The legislation’s got the support of labor unions including the Teamsters, who argue it will save jobs and keep California’s roads safe. The bill could be headed to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk in the near future. Marketplace’s Lily Jamali made a visit to Aurora’s headquarters in the Bay Area and sat down with its CEO, Chris Urmson, and asked him how this bill could halt the company’s advances here in the Golden State.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Marketplace Morning Report's new Skin in the Game series explores what we can learn about |
| 0:04.6 | money and careers from the $300 billion video game industry. Plus, here how an Oakland-based |
| 0:11.0 | program helps young people get the skills they need to break into this booming industry. |
| 0:15.9 | Listen to Skin in the Game and more from the Marketplace Morning Report wherever you get your |
| 0:20.7 | podcasts. Driverless Trucks could be set to hit a possible roadblock in the nation's biggest |
| 0:28.0 | tech hub. From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech. I'm Lillie Dremally. |
| 0:43.6 | Self-driving technology company Aurora Innovation has plans to commercialize autonomous trucks by |
| 0:49.7 | the end of next year. So far, the company seems to be on that path in Texas, here in California where |
| 0:57.4 | the company is partly headquartered and has long incubated much of its technology. It's a different |
| 1:02.9 | story. The company's home state may push back on its innovations with California Assembly Bill |
| 1:08.8 | 316, which would prohibit any self-driving trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds from hitting |
| 1:15.5 | the road here without a trained human operator behind the wheel. The legislations got the |
| 1:20.9 | support of labor unions, including the teamsters who argue it'll save jobs and keep California's |
| 1:27.2 | roads safe. The bill could be headed to Governor Gavin Newsom's desk in the near future. |
| 1:32.4 | I made a visit to Aurora's headquarters in the Bay Area and sat down with its CEO Chris |
| 1:37.8 | Irmson. And I asked him how this bill could halt the company's advances here in the Golden State. |
| 1:44.1 | AB 316 is a bill that would require, well, would basically mean that California is not a place for |
| 1:52.0 | automated trucks. And from our perspective, so much in the United States is open for business |
| 1:56.9 | where they will see the economic benefit of this. They'll see the safety benefit of this. |
| 2:01.6 | It personally, it's a little bit sad that having helped incubate this technology in California to |
| 2:06.4 | not have Californians benefit from it. I mean, on a scale of, you know, not a big deal to |
| 2:13.4 | existential threat to your company, how would you rate your concerns about AB 316 right now? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Marketplace, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Marketplace and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.