Former Cruise Lawyer Is One of Five People Deciding Cruise Robotaxi Expansion

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Robotaxis on public streets are causing dozens of problems each month for firetrucks, ambulances and police cars and city traffic. California state agencies have set up the rules where city leaders cannot block autonomous vehicle regulation. San Francisco and Los Angeles are fighting the expansion of robotaxi operations.

Thee Los Angeles Department of Transportation and the city of Santa Monica have filed comments with the commission arguing that robotaxi service should be rolled out incrementally as problems are identified and addressed. Both also called for far more data transparency on robotaxi safety issues. The industry countered with filings opposing any kind of incremental rollout.

The June 29 consent agenda package will gather 50 orders and resolutions on a wide variety of issues, to be passed or rejected by a single vote by the California Public Utility Commission’s five commissioners. CPUC commissioner, lawyer John Reynolds, was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021. In 2021, John Reynolds served as general counsel for Cruise.

Commissioner John Reynolds was appointed to the CPUC by Governor Gavin Newsom on Dec. 23, 2021, and reappointed on Dec. 22, 2022. Prior to his appointment to the CPUC, Commissioner Reynolds served as Managing Counsel at Cruise LLC since 2019.

State regulators track robotaxi collisions, but they don’t track data on traffic flow issues, such as street blockages or interference with firetrucks. The San Francisco Fire Department has tracked traffic problems for firetrucks. Since Jan. 1, 2023 the San Francisco Fire Department has logged at least 39 robotaxi incident reports.

According to a letter from SF officials, monthly reported incidents involving Waymo driverless operations have increased six-fold this year, including instances where they interfered with emergency services. According to data provided by the city, reported incidents involving driverless Waymo and Cruise vehicles more than tripled from 24 to 87 between January and April.

In San Francisco, Waymo is now covering the entire peninsula, operating a free, 24/7 robotaxi service. The northeast section of the city, including Fisherman’s Wharf and North Beach, are still only accessible to Waymo’s Trusted Testers, who are employees and guests who have signed up to beta test certain features.

Waymo is asking for its self-driving vehicles to be allowed to operate day or night across nearly the entirety of San Francisco at speeds up to 65 mph. Cruise is seeking many of the same geographic and operational expansions but only at speeds up to 35 mph.

* Running through yellow emergency tape and ignoring warning signs to enter a street strewn with storm-damaged electrical wires, then driving past emergency vehicles with some of those wires snarled around rooftop lidar sensors.
* Twice blocking firehouse driveways, requiring another firehouse to dispatch an ambulance to a medical emergency.
* Sitting motionless on a one-way street and forcing a firetruck to back up and take another route to a blazing building.
* Pulling up behind a firetruck that was flashing its emergency lights and parking there, interfering with firefighters unloading ladders.
* Entering an active fire scene, then parking with one of its tires on top of a fire hose.
* After a mass shooting June 9 that wounded nine people, a robotaxi blocked a lane in front of emergency responders in the city’s Mission District. Another lane was open, but in a news release, the Fire Department said on a narrower street, the blockage could have been “catastrophic.”

The utilities commission is set to vote on robotaxi expansion June 29. The rules for expansion do not consider issues such as traffic flow and interference with emergency workers can’t be used to deny expansion permits.

The resolutions list four goals to be considered:
inclusion of people with disabilities;
improved transportation options for the disadvantaged;
reduction of greenhouse gases; and
passenger safety.

The DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) collects data on collisions and has the power to suspend permits. The DMV has taken no action and made no statements about robotaxi interference with firefighters.

The California Public Utility Commission is considering adding City incident information as part of its process. However, there is no indication that this will be used to block expansion permits or suspend permits.

4. Data Sharing from Local Jurisdictions
Municipalities have unique access to data on what is occurring on the streets within their jurisdictions. CPED invites parties to comment on 1) their interest in voluntary reporting of relevant municipal data to CPED and 2) what data are available, regularly reportable, and relevant to the monitoring and evaluation of AV operations.

Examples might include 911 reports, citations by local police or parking officials, and other data. Reports should be anonymized or otherwise redacted to prevent
disclosure of personally identifiable information.

CPUC Commissioners

Other than the former lawyer for Cruise, the self-driving company, there are four other CPUC commissioners.

Alice Busching Reynolds was appointed to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) as President by Governor Gavin Newsom on Nov. 22, 2021, effective Dec. 31, 2021. She was confirmed as a CPUC Commissioner by the State Senate on August 17, 2022. Prior to her appointment, President Reynolds served for three years as Governor Gavin Newsom’s senior advisor for energy. From 2011 to January 2019, she served in the administration of Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr., most recently as the Governor’s senior advisor for climate, the environment and energy and previously as chief counsel and deputy secretary for law enforcement at the California Environmental Protection Agency.

Genevieve Shiroma was appointed to the CPUC by Governor Newsom on Jan. 22, 2019. Prior to joining the CPUC, Commissioner Shiroma served as a member of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board from 1999 to 2019, serving as chair from 1999 to 2006, 2011 to 2014, and 2017 to 2019. Previously, she was Chief of the Air Quality Branch at the California Air Resources Board from 1990 to 1999, an air quality supervisor from 1984 to 1990, and an air quality engineer from 1978 to 1984. For five terms, from 1999 to 2018, Commissioner Shiroma was the elected director of Ward 4 of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD).

Commissioner Darcie L. Houck was appointed to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) by Governor Gavin Newsom on Feb. 9, 2021. She formerly served as Chief Counsel for the California Energy Commission since 2019. Commissioner Houck was an Administrative Law Judge at the CPUC from 2016 to 2019, a Partner at Fredericks Peebles & Morgan from 2005 to 2016, and Staff Counsel and Policy Advisor at the California Energy Commission from 2000 to 2005.

Karen Douglas was appointed to the CPUC by Governor Gavin Newsom on Dec. 22, 2022.

Commissioner Douglas was previously Senior Advisor for Energy in the Office of Governor Newsom since 2022. She was a California Energy Commission Member from 2008 to 2022. She was Director of the California Climate Initiative for the Environmental Defense Fund from 2005 to 2008. She held several positions at the Planning and Conservation League from 2001 to 2005, including Acting Executive Director and General Counsel.

The CPUC regulates privately owned electric, natural gas, telecommunications, water, railroad, rail transit, and passenger transportation companies.

1 thought on “Former Cruise Lawyer Is One of Five People Deciding Cruise Robotaxi Expansion”

  1. Half the situations listed in the article could just as easily have involved a human driver making the same mistake. And most of them could have been handled pretty quickly by somehow giving the police and fire departments the ability to drive the robo-taxi out of the way.

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