On Thursday, progressive tech group Chamber of Progress sent a letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom, urging the Golden State Governor to address the supply chain crisis by allowing self-driving trucks on the road in California. Chamber of Progress’s letter comes amid a continuing supply chain backlog caused in part by truck driver shortages, which have contributed to gift scarcity and empty store shelves during the holiday season.

Read the full letter from Chamber of Progress here.

Over the past year, autonomous vehicle companies have made major progress developing self-driving trucks. This September, Kodiak revealed a new generation of autonomous trucks designed for scalable production. Waymo recently announced it’s moving ahead with a hub for autonomous trucks in Texas, and Aurora Innovation has begun testing self-driving trucks for a partnership with FedEx. Some industry experts are predicting national rollout of the technology by 2030. 

In its letter to Governor Newsom, Chamber of Progress points to the ongoing shortage of truck drivers nationwide as one of the causes of the ongoing supply chain crisis. The American Trucking Association reports an annual turnover rate of 90 percent and projects that the nationwide shortage of truckers will double to over 160,000 job vacancies by 2030 unless action is taken.

Chamber of Progress is calling on Gov. Newsom to direct the Department of Motor Vehicles to commence a rulemaking enabling the testing and deployment of Class 8 autonomous trucks across California. For more, read the organization’s recent op-ed in the Orange County Register on autonomous trucking.

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Chamber of Progress (progresschamber.org) is a new center-left tech industry policy coalition promoting technology’s progressive future. We work to ensure that all Americans benefit from technological leaps, and that the tech industry operates responsibly and fairly.

Our corporate partners do not have a vote on or veto over our positions. We do not speak for individual partner companies and remain true to our stated principles even when our partners disagree.