From the ADCU
Are “human safety drivers” qualified and
safe to support AV rollout? ADCU demands urgent answers as driverless
taxis hit London streets
The App Drivers' and Couriers' Union (ADCU) is calling for urgent
answers from the platform companies, the Department for Transport and
Transport for London after driverless cars for hire appeared on the
streets of London for the first time today.
ADCU has repeatedly raised serious concerns about the rollout of
autonomous passenger vehicles, including in evidence to the London
Assembly Transport Committee in June. A central unanswered question
remains the status of the so-called "human safety drivers"
inside the vehicles during the pilot.
ADCU is demanding immediate clarity on:
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Who these human safety drivers are and how they have been recruited.
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Whether they are licensed private hire drivers.
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If they are licensed drivers, where liability sits if there is an accident or a passenger becomes unwell.
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If they are not licensed drivers, what qualifications and authority they have to act in that role.
Cristina-Georgiana Ioanitescu, General Secretary of ADCU, said:
Londoners are being asked to trust a system without being given basic answers about who is responsible when something goes wrong. We have been asking these questions for months. If there is a collision, if a passenger becomes ill, or if a safety-critical decision has to be made, the public has a right to know exactly where liability sits and what status these so-called human safety drivers actually have."TfL requires licensed private hire drivers to pass stringent checks before they are allowed to carry passengers, including medical, safeguarding and regulatory requirements designed to protect the public. So the obvious question is: has that same standard been applied here? If the person sitting in the vehicle is meant to intervene in a safety-critical situation, or deal with a passenger emergency, Londoners need to know whether they have gone through the same licensing and vetting process as every other private hire driver in this city. If not, why not?”The platform companies, the Department for Transport and TfL need to answer these questions today. Until they do, we would not advise anyone to set foot in a driverless taxi.
ADCU has consistently argued that autonomous vehicle trials must not be
allowed to proceed without full transparency, proper democratic
oversight, and clear safeguards for passengers, workers and the wider
public.
