‘Waymo? Hell No!’ Labor is fighting against autonomous vehicles

In April, Portlanders may have noticed a fleet of custom white Land Rovers roaming downtown. Waymo, a driverless ride service, began mapping Portland this spring, though piloted by humans for the time being. To fully launch autonomously, the company will need a permit from the City. Portland’s human drivers are campaigning to ensure the approval doesn’t come through.

The Drivers Union Oregon recently launched its own “Waymo Hell No” campaign, following the rallying cry of drivers and allies in other states, to collect letters from Oregonians to lawmakers opposing autonomous vehicles.

“We want to drive as much engagement so (lawmakers) know from as many Oregonians and from as many people that come and visit our city that we want a human driver behind the wheel,” Nathaniel Hudson-Hartman, a driver and union organizer, said.

The Drivers Union Oregon lacks full legal recognition as a union as long as drivers are classified as contractors, but still aims to represent Lyft, Uber and other rideshare drivers by fighting for higher wages, protection from unfair deactivation of driver profiles, heightened transparency, and inclusion of public benefits like workers’ compensation and Paid Family Medical Leave.

“Our union advocacy is really largely focused on workers’ rights, but also on consumer protections as well from price gouging,” Hudson-Hartman said. “Companies are charging riders as much as they can, paying drivers as little as they can, and riders don’t have the right to transparency to know where the money is going.”

During Oregon’s 2025 regular legislative session, Sen. Kayse Jama (D-Portland) and Rep. Nathan Sosa (D-Hillsboro) introduced a bill addressing many of the union’s concerns, including increasing wages and protections for drivers. Unfortunately, the bill didn’t make it out of the Ways and Means Committee.

“We made a big splash in the legislature,” Hudson-Hartman said. “We were really thrilled with the reception that we got from lawmakers, and we were getting more and more confident that that bill had legs and was going to move forward if it weren’t for the budgetary stuff that was completely out of our hands.” 

To improve conditions for human drivers, the Drivers Union has proposed similar language, introduced by Councilors Angelita Morillo and Jamie Dunphy and co-sponsored by Councilors Steve Novick and Elana Pirtle-Guiney, for an ordinance Portland City Council will consider to:

• Require Uber & Lyft to guarantee drivers keep at least 80% of what passengers pay, capping their commission at 20% or less
• Require Uber & Lyft to provide itemized receipts for every trip to both drivers and passengers showing their take rate

“Drivers need to earn a fair and guaranteed living wage, and the companies want to counter that with an algorithmic pricing model that gives them the flexibility to use their algorithms to completely control our wages as they have already,” Hudson-Hartman said. “They want that in statute, so we’re pushing back hard against that and telling folks that is not what drivers want.”

But even as drivers strive for better conditions, the specter of automation threatens to eliminate their jobs entirely.

“We’re disgusted with Waymo and their tactics that they’re using of using folks from vulnerable communities to further their own profit agenda,” Hudson-Hartman said. 

Waymo routinely markets itself to the disabled community and aggressively seeks endorsements from disability advocacy organizations.

Despite its case for accessibility, Hudson-Hartman said Waymo misses the mark when targeting disabled riders.

“Our community is disproportionately drawn from low-income and immigrant communities,” Hudson-Hartman said of drivers. “Folks with disabilities have come to depend on this work, and the community has come to depend on us to be there and to help them, especially those folks that have mobility issues. We wear a lot of hats. We’re trained to recognize the signs of unwellness and instability with riders potentially that are experiencing crises and need help with mobility-assisted devices.”

As with all labor, drivers do skilled labor that cannot be replaced, and when it comes to the disabled community, both drivers and riders face serious harm and consequences from automation.

A wheelchair user in San Francisco wrote in a June letter to the editor in the San Francisco Chronicle that Waymo treats disabled riders “like second-class customers” since complex mobility aids can’t be stored the same as foldable aids, and many mobility aid users cannot shift themselves into a vehicle on their own, let alone lift and store their aids without the help of a driver.

Still, some lawmakers forge on in favor of the rideshare tech companies.

Representatives Susan McLain and Shelly Boshart Davis introduced a bill during the 2026 short session that would allow fully automated cars in Oregon, but due to pushback from the Drivers Union and local governments, the bill died in the Transportation Committee.

In response, Hudson-Hartman said the Drivers Union’s coalition, Fair Rides Oregon, alongside other advocates, made their opposition known during the session.

“We really highlighted our concerns about not just labor impacts, but also congestion and environmental impacts, and we strongly believe that the city of Portland shouldn’t be blocked from having its own regulations,” Hudson-Hartman said.

Now, Portland has the opportunity to open the gates to Waymo and autonomous car companies of its ilk. Already, Waymo is courting city councilors to varying degrees of success. Before Waymo launched its surveying cars in late April, City Councilor Loretta Smith posted photos smiling and shaking hands with Waymo representatives with the caption, “Waymo (driverless vehicles) may be coming to Oregon. Driverless ride share representatives dropped by my office yesterday.”

In conversation with Smith about Waymo’s potential operations in Portland, Hudson-Hartman said Smith voiced definite concerns about the impacts of autonomous vehicles. 

OPB also reported in April that Waymo sent out a press release with a comment of support from Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, in which he stated, “As a green transportation leader of one of the safest trucking companies in America, I’ve seen firsthand how emerging technology can transform safety for all road users,” referring to his prior position as CEO of Titan Freight Systems.

Hudson-Hartman challenged Wilson’s safety and environmental claims about Waymo, noting that Waymo would increase congestion by adding more cars on the road and citing safety incidents with Waymo in other states, such as its vehicles blocking emergency responders and illegally passing school buses.

“Any autonomous vehicle that comes into Oregon, no exceptions, has to have a human safety operator, a human driver behind the wheel that can take control of any autonomous vehicle in the case of an emergency,” Hudson-Hartman said.

Conversely, Councilors Morillo, Tiffany Koyama Lane, Sameer Kanal and Mitch Green condemn Waymo and take staunch positions in opposition to the company launching in Portland. Councilor Olivia Clark compared Waymo to “the AI of transportation” and called the autonomous vehicles “disturbing,” according to BikePortland.

Waymo’s schemes for Portland present real labor displacement threats, surveillance threats and safety concerns. As the city considers how to regulate autonomous cars — from fleet size caps and fees to a full ban on driverless vehicles — human drivers are fighting to center their voice and perspective over the larger debate around modernizing Portland’s amenities.

“We strongly believe that we don’t need autonomous vehicles. We need to take care of those that we have here,” Hudson-Hartman said. “There needs to be a human behind the wheel to take control of the vehicle, but also to be able to assist potentially a passenger who’s in crisis who experiences a medical emergency, or is potentially showing signs of being someone who’s the victim of human trafficking, or someone who needs help with their mobility assistance device, or their groceries or their luggage.”

While the Drivers Union waits for movement on the Portland ordinance, drivers are already working with Jama and Rep. Lamar Wise (D-Portland) to bring a new iteration of their bill into the 2027 regular legislative session.

The bill will likely include a consumer protection package, establish minimum compensation standards, strive to secure access to benefits and protections from wrongful deactivations — which just means “being fired by an app,” Hudson-Hartman said. 

Ultimately, Hudson-Hartman said the union wants to “just give drivers a voice” when it comes to legislation and regulation of rideshare companies.

The drivers expect Waymo will also be back to try again with their bill to allow autonomous vehicles across Oregon.

“We’ll definitely be asking, calling on solidarity and support,” Hudson-Hartman said. “We feel that it should be up to the people whether you enable another out-of-state big tech company to outsource resources out of our community for the sake of corporate shareholders while Oregonians are left holding the bag.”

This article appears in October 14, 2026.