Gig workers and labor organizers affiliated with SEIU gathered at Fresno City Hall on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, to voice concerns about safety and accountability rules regarding autonomous vehicles. Photo by Ben Hensley

Gig workers and labor organizers gathered at Fresno City Hall on Wednesday to voice their concerns about safety and accountability rules regarding autonomous vehicles as the technology continues to expand across the state.

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) voiced its support for recently introduced legislation — SB 1246 — that aims to strengthen safety and accountability rules for autonomous vehicle fleet owners. Supporters say they have been allowed to operate without concrete safety and regulatory guidelines.

“We’re out here to support Senate Bill 1246, and it’s basically to help the rollout to autonomous vehicles that they’re done in a safe manner, that they’re in a legal framework that doesn’t have loopholes that are operating under today,” said Mustafa El-Amin of Fresno, representing the California Gig Workers Union.

Speakers at the event also raised concerns about how autonomous vehicles could affect rideshare drivers who rely on gig work for income.

“I’ve been a part-time Uber and Lyft driver for over 10 years,” said Vikaas Shanker, a member of California Gig Workers United. “Rideshare has helped me to achieve special moments in my life from earning enough to acquire my wife’s wedding ring, to saving up for the down payment on my first home.”

Shanker said drivers are organizing to ensure their voices are heard as the autonomous technology becomes a common sight on California roadways.

Although autonomous vehicles have not yet appeared regularly in the Central Valley, Shanker said those days are not far off.

“For all the folks of Fresno that do not see autonomous vehicles yet, we know technology and corporations, they move at light speed. And they’re gonna do that into new markets,” Shanker said. “So are we gonna wait and stand up for public safety or emergency services? No, we are not.”

Shanker, El-Amin and many gig workers supporting an applicable and effective framework for the technology prior to its arrival in the Central Valley hope the bill will achieve just that.