Latest / UK Column Radio / Road Freedom | UK Column Interviews

Transcript

Road Freedom | UK Column Interviews · UK Column Radio

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: And welcome to another uk column interview from me yours
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: truly mark anderson u.s based correspondent for uk column news
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: i hope you enjoyed my last interview with james perloff
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: that got quite a response now today we're getting into
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: some really key issues in the US that also have
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: reverberations in the UK. And I've been a journalist for
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: about 40 years. And I've worked with and seen and
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: covered a number of activists and lobbyists and whatnot. And
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: it's difficult to find someone more dedicated and resilient and
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: often very highly effective than Terry Hall of San Antonio, Texas.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: She's my guest today. And The issues she's been covering
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: since the early days with the San Antonio Toll Party
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: are issues that you don't often hear in the international news.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: So in that sense, this is a very fresh report
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: for the UK column viewers. And we're going to be
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: talking about a little bit of history that has to
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: do with NAFTA, superhighways, and the tolling of freeways, things
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: like that. And also kill switches on vehicles. Foreign... commercial
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: driver's licenses and the problems there, and a really big,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: huge issue, driverless rigs that weigh 80,000 pounds or more,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: things like that, and the link of all this, the
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: association of all this with the data centers we see
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: popping up all over the place. And so with that
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: introduction and that cornerstone laid, I'd like to welcome Terry
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Hall to the show. How are you doing, Terry?
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: I'm doing well. Thank you for having me.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've watched what you've been doing over the years.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: I think you still meet in San Antonio on occasion
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: at Chester's Burgers. I remember going there in 2008 and
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I was fumbling with the new video camera I had.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I barely knew which end was which. But even then,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: you had a lot of leadership qualities and you really
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: knew how to corral the troops and get everyone thinking
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: on the same page and really be highly effective. at
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: the Texas Legislature in Austin. And now in more recent times,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: you do journey from time to time to Washington, D.C.,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: where you've had communications with congressmen like Chip Roy and
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: until recently, a Congressman Thomas Massey of Kentucky. Anyway, that's
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: an interesting branch out you've done there in recent times.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: But let's start with just a little bit of history.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: I know you're a homeschool mom and you got a
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: lot on your plate at times. But give us just
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: a quick synopsis of the early days, and then we'll
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: get into these very pivotal issues. You started with the
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: San Antonio Toll Party. That became Texans for Toll-Free Highways.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: There's another organization, Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom. You've
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: founded and kind of led these organizations. But give us
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: a little snapshot of the early days, the good old
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: days with the NAFTA Superhighway, and then we'll quickly fast
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: forward to these other issues.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Sure. So back then in 2005 timeframe, we caught wind
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: of the really the big leg of the NAFTA superhighway
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: was along the I-35 corridor. They were basically going to build,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: this is when I say they, I mean the Texas
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: Governor Rick Perry at the time and his highway department,
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: which is called TxDOT here, were planning to build a
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: parallel highway to I-35, which is the main artery north-south
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: through Texas. And it was going to be toll rail,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: toll road, toll pipelines, toll everything, telecommunications, all of that.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: And it was going to be in the hands of
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: a foreign company. Well, you can imagine how that doesn't
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: sit well with Texans. They don't want their infrastructure in
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: the hands of foreigners. And that still is very unpopular,
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: as we probably saw in recent years in a legislative
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: session where we did a China land ban, basically, is
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: what the name of that bill was. So it doesn't
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: sit well with Texans. And we knew that instinctively, even
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: though I'm a transplant from California to Texas. I've been
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: here over 20 years. And almost the entire time, as
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: soon as my feet hit the ground, we came here
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: in 2004. By 2005, I was already active in the
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Texas legislature. So that tells you a little bit about
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: what I was doing. And that was back when I
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: only had five kids. I've had five more since then
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: in Texas. So we have 10 kids and I do
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: homeschool them. So it's not like I have a bunch
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: of free time on my hands. This really was about
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: in our view, an existential threat to what was happening
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: to our freedom to travel. And when a foreign entity
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: can get control of your public infrastructure, I think it
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: goes in large part without saying, but that means that
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: that toll rate is no longer in the hands of
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: the taxpayer, in the hands of we the people. So
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: now we can't control or exert pressure if that toll
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: rate goes sky high, which is exactly what's happened, by
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: the way. Now, we managed to get a moratorium in
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: place in 2007. On those types of contracts, globally they're
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: known as public-private partnerships. And, in fact, there are some British, French,
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: mostly Spanish firms that have bid on these projects and
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: have been part of the private equity firms that have
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: been trying to engage in these types of contracts globally.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: But our governor basically put out a welcome mat and
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: a little welcome sign on the Capitol steps and said,
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: you name your price, we'll sell you Texas. And, of course,
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Texans didn't like that. So there was a lot of pushback,
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: significant pushback, and so we were able to get a
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: moratorium on the public-private partnerships, but there were still several
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: that got signed before that moratorium took effect. So some
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: of them were grandfathered in. So at the end of
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: the day, those tolls now today in the Dallas-Fort Worth area,
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: on particularly one of them, it's $ 24 one way to
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: go from Fort Worth to Dallas, which is not a
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: very long drive. I mean, it's like maybe 25, 30 miles.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: it exceeds $ 4 a mile during peak hours. So it
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: depends on the length of your trip and where you're
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: getting on and all of that, but it's, it's more
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: than $ 4 a mile. So that's obviously unsustainable for your
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: average traveler. So the pushback was swift and sure. And
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: that was the first step. But then in 2011 timeframe,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: we were finally able to repeal the entire trans Texas
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: corridor chapter of the code And that was the good
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: old days, because you hardly ever see that happen. And
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: not only in the Texas legislature, but anywhere where you
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: see an entire chapter of a government code go away.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, once these things get written, you know how
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: this is. I mean, it's like we're just piled under
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: the bureaucracy and all the laws they pass year after year.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: It's like it's hard not to break a law when
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: they pass this many laws. So we actually did get
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: it repealed. And the Trans-Texas Corridor, as it was once conceived,
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: is no more. And it never really got built in Texas.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: And we're very, very grateful for that. And had it
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: not been for the grassroots movement that we helped build,
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: we worked with lots of, you know, grassroots organizations across
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: the state, but turf was still, you know, pretty much
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: front and center. And we're still the only grassroots group
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: that really advocates on transportation issues in Texas and now nationally.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: And so we've been, you know, had a great measure
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: of success there. And we still work on freedom to
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: travel issues. And I know we're going to get into
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: some of those today.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Very good. And I'm glad you outlined that concisely the
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: way you did. Your victory over the Trans-Texas Corridor is
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: a very notable one. As I recall, had they built
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: it to specs, counting the intermediate lanes and the main
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: lanes and the amenities and everything involved, it could have
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: been up to a quarter mile wide.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: That's right. And it was supposed to be 580,000 acres
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: of of private Texas property going in the hands of
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: a private foreign corporation for 50 plus years. So it's
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: a multi-generational contract that they would sign. And of course,
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: there was heaps of taxpayer subsidies. There were federal subsidies.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: There's something called the Federal TIFIA Loan Program and Private
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: Activity Bond Program through the feds. So they had all
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: kinds of carrot sticks, all kinds of incentives and subsidies.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: And in fact, our highway department through Rick Perry and
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: our complicit legislature at the time gave over a billion
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: dollars in our gas tax money to subsidize these. So
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: now your gas tax is supposed to be building free roads,
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: was going into a toll road, and now you're going
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: to pay, you know, 24 bucks one way to use
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: that road. So, I mean, it's a double, even triple
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: tax scheme by the time it's all said and done.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: So obviously there was a tax revolt, and thankfully the
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: Texans won that round.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're talking a buck a mile or better there.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Yes, and some of them exceed $ 4 a mile now
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: in the Metroplex area. during peak hours. So it went very,
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: very quickly. So it started at a dollar a mile
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: in Austin on one of these. And now we're seeing
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: on these privatized ones, like we're talking about, these public-private partnerships,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: those are in excess of $ 4 a mile during peak
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: hours today.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a quick chapter that I'll pull out of my
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: reporter's notebook is in 2006, 20 years ago now, Mitch Daniels,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: then governor of Indiana, sold off the Indiana toll road
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: To Macquarie, I believe, was an Australian-based company.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: It was both of them, yes.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I believe it was for 70-plus years. And
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: what happens, of course, is the state gets the money
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: up front. And in return, the private company gets to
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: charge what the market will bear for motorists going onto
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: that toll road. Which is basically.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: You know, sky's the limit. It's a toll with no cap.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: And they, in fact, call it congestion pricing. I don't
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: know if you're aware of this. I know it's popular
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: in Europe, so maybe the UK is familiar with that term.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: But the whole point of it is to have the
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: toll rate go up so high that you get people
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: off those lanes, because you're pricing people off the lanes
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: in order to manipulate our travel. And that's really what
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: the point of these facilities is. It's really not about
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: adding new capacity, getting more people where they need to go,
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: and keep it a freeway system. It really is about control.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: It's about government control and purposely pricing you off your
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: roadways to, I guess, get you either to travel a
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: different way or to just let you sit in congestion
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: on the congested highways if you're not rich enough to
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: use the toll lanes. So it really is, you know,
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: that's why the left doesn't like it because they think
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: it hurts the poor, which of course it does, and
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: working class. And then the right doesn't like it because
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: of the taxation level. It's insane, not to mention anyone
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: who's libertarian in the middle or both sides, if you
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: want to say. They don't like the fact that they
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: are having their travel manipulated and that their freedom to
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: travel is being hampered by big government and in the
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: hands of these private corporations. Some people have called it fascist,
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: you know, where you have this involvement of the marriage
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: of government with these private entities that are now teaming
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: up to have these monopolies. And the Indiana deal was
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: a little different, structured differently than our Texas deal because
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: they did get that upfront payment. That's not how they
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: structure the contracts here in Texas. I feel like it's
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: even worse. Not only do we not get a payment,
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: like there was like, at least you could get like
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: a balloon sum to go build some more freeways or
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: something if you're a public official trying to sell this,
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: you know, snake oil to somebody. But here in Texas,
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: it was worse in the sense that we didn't get
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: the money up front. We actually gave them money. We
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: gave them a billion dollars of our gas tax money
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: to build the road and then guaranteed the profits through
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: all of these federal subsidies and loans. So it's like
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: the taxpayer is getting hit on the front and the
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: back end on these deals, and it really hampers people's
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: freedom to travel and their ability to get around. And,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: of course, that makes it harder for your employees if
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: you're a business. It makes it more expensive if you
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: have a fleet of trucks or cars that have to
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: get on our highways all day long, you know, whether
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: it's your pest control guys or your landscapers, you know,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: whoever it is. All of that increases your cost of
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: doing business. And, of course, our cost of goods goes up.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: Whether you take the toll road or not, The cost
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: of everything you buy is going to go up because
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: the cars that do have to take this pass that
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: cost on to you, the consumer.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what's called cost push inflation. Another quick note about
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Mitch Daniels was that he was imported out of Virginia
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: into the Indiana governor's chair. And you'd swear that one
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: of his main tasks, possibly even assigned by the elite,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: was to sell off public assets. At least he got
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: some money for it. Texas did it differently in a
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: much worse way, as you mentioned. And then Mitch was
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: a member of the Trilateral Commission and ended up in
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: a very cushy job at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: And Rick Perry, right around that time, attended a Bilderberg meeting,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: which is where.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: You know, that's... And that's where they all get together
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: and share these horrible ideas and try to make them
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: go viral in their own states. It's terrible.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. The privatization of government, the privatization of public assets.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: And that's what it ultimately means. Anyway, thank you for that.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: That's a good slice of that recent history. And your
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: efforts and those of your associates were obviously very effective oftentimes. Now,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: moving forward, we've got these bellwether issues that are really vexing.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: And let's start with the one that's really uncomfortable, kill switches.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: And you can define what a kill switch is. I'll
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: take a quick stab. It's basically a way for an
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: outside entity, be it government or a private public partnership entity,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: to turn off your vehicle, either you won't be able
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: to start it in the first place, or if I
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: understand it right, it could even be turned off on
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: route while you're moving, which would be insanely dangerous to
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: do anyway. But what is a kill switch? How prevalent
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: is it? How urgent is this? And what efforts, both
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: recent and in the near future, are you carrying out?
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: So this was in the Biden infrastructure bill that passed
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: in his first year in office. So this was back
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: in 2021. And you might remember This is back when
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Pelosi was the House Speaker, and it was basically a
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: cram down. They had no time to read the bill,
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: and there was no amendments or debate allowed. So most
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: of our reps had no idea what was in it.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: There were a few Republicans that crossed over and voted
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: with the Democrats, but it basically was a Democrat cram down.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: And so we find out a few months later, because
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: it was a massive bill, it was over 1,000 pages,
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: that there's tucked away under the Advanced Impaired Driving Technology section,
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: so this is under the moniker of you know, prevention
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: of drunk driving. That's kind of how they're trying to
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: sell this. It has something in there that requires manufacturers
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: now by 2026, which is the year we're in, to
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: put massive, passive monitoring of our vehicles, some kind of
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: technology into our cars. And we know from the draft
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: rule that has come out since, this is through the
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: Department of Transportation, under that is a safety division called
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: the NHTSA, we call it for short, So NHTSA put
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: out the draft rule. And so we know what this
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: technology is actually going to include. What do they mean
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: by passive monitoring, right? That's a big, broad term. Who knows?
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: It sounds scary. Well, it is scary. So it actually includes,
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: of course, lane monitoring, where you're at in the lane.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: So if you start swerving too many times, never mind
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: if it's debris or to avoid a deer, they could
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: cut power to your car. It has eye monitoring. So
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: that means you're going to have driver-facing cameras on you
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: at all times. The government monitoring you while you're driving
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: to see if your eyes, maybe you Maybe you have
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: your eyes looking like you're tired or sleepy, or I
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: don't know what they're looking for, but maybe it's distraction. Well,
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: what if I'm talking to my kids or my spouse, whatever.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: If I do that too many times in a certain timeframe,
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: they could cut power to your car because they'll call
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: that a kill switch event or that you may be impaired.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: It also includes, this is a scary part to me.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: I had no idea until I read the draft rule
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: that they'd go this far. It actually monitors the breath
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: or the air in your car. So now they're going
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: to like, literally they're monitoring the air we breathe. And
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: so They're presumably trying to get alcohol detection right, but
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: what if you're the designated driver and this technology is
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: detecting the alcohol on the breath of passengers in your
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: car and you're not guilty of anything? Well, they could
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: still shut down power to your car and have, I presume,
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: somehow this notifies law enforcement or who knows what. That's
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: one thing that has not been really made clear in
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: these draft rules is how do you get out of
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: a kill switch event? Especially if you're not guilty of anything,
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: how do you get your car to start working again? And,
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: you know, you can be out in the middle of nowhere.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: Maybe I'm a female with my kids. The weather's bad.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: I'm terrified. You know, how am I going to get
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: out of this situation? So that's also scary. But if
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: that doesn't go far enough for you, it actually also
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: is supposed to include touch sensors. So what does that mean, right? So,
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: for instance, on your start-stop switch on your car, they
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: are asking, this is NHTSA now, this is through our
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: Department of Transportation agency, through this federal statute that passed,
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: they want someone to develop the technology to detect alcohol
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: impairment from the touch of your fingers. Now, how they
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: do that is beyond me because it can't possibly be accurate. Look,
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: we already have methods to do that, and it's called
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: a breathalyzer test and or a blood test, right? And
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: we already know what blood alcohol levels are to be drunk. Well,
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: all of that went out the window when they passed
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: this bill because now it just says impairment. Impairment can
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: mean anything. It can mean you're looking at your kids
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: too often or you're fiddling with your radio too much
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: or trying to figure out your navigation in your car.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Any kind of distraction could be called impairment, right? Well,
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: Ford just came out with a patent recently and they
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: were trying to seek a patent for this. They're putting
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: technology in their cars right now because of this kill
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: switch technology is being mandated to go in the cars
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: the way they want to do it. is if somehow
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: your blood flow to your finger is showing that you're
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: too stressed to drive or thinks that you're not fit
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: to drive, and when you do your touch start button,
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: it simply won't start your car if it thinks that
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: you're not fit to drive. It's also supposed to have
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: cameras everywhere, not just facing the driver. I mean, they
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: showed in this schematic diagram of all the places that
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: they would put a camera in your car. And, folks,
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: that doesn't mean it's just the visuals. of course that
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: means they're going to record everything you're saying in your car.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: So you will have no privacy left. I mean, whether
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: it's Ford manufacturer, there's some AI bot somewhere, or the government,
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: they are going to be watching us every time we're
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: in our vehicle, and there will be no more private
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: conversations ever again if they get away with this. And
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: so the kill switch is a huge problematic, big government
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: nanny state being unleashed in our vehicles. Of course, like
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: you said, Mark, I mean, how can it not be
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: horribly dangerous to be able to actually cease operation of
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: someone's car while you're driving it. It has no idea
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: if there's a shoulder next to you, if there's enough,
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: you know, ability for you to get over in time
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: without hitting more cars. I actually have lost power steering
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: in my car before, and it's the most frightening experience
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: I've ever had. My brakes, because they're power brakes, nothing worked.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: I could barely steer. You know, as you know, you
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: can't even hardly navigate your car when you've lost power
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: to your car. So this is... Horribly dangerous and so
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: it really comes down to why would they do this?
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: It's really not about safety It's really not about catching
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: drunk driving. We already have the aftermarket They basically where
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: you breathe into a device and it won't start your
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: car if it Determines that you're drunk if you've been
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: a convicted drunk driver you have to have these aftermarket
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: Interlock devices added to your vehicle to make sure that
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: you're not driving drunk and that's if you've gone through
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: the court system and and you've had your due process
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: and you have some of your liberty taken away in
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: order to drive because you've been convicted of something but
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: now all innocent drivers are going to be presumed guilty
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: and you're going to be monitored by the government so
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: that they can catch you if you do anything wrong.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah there's two things there to explore just a little
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: more uh first to emphasize what you're saying is that
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: the net effect of this is basically to erase the
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: due process um procedure altogether, which is constitutional. That's fundamental
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: to our rights. So this brave new world we're entering,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: aided by groups like Trilaterals and Bilderbergs, they make their contributions,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: their fingerprints are on this. There's all these private entities
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: that are controlling formerly public assets, just like we sold
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: our money to the Federal Reserve and it loans it
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: back to us at interest. It's the same thing. You
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: control the money. Once you control the money, you buy
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: the media, you buy the highways and freeways, You privatize everything.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: And the automatic consequence is the erasure of our rights.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: But putting that aside for a moment, how much of
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: this is reality that's about to be enacted or has
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: to some degree been enacted? And how much of this
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: is maybe down the road a bit? And maybe that's
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: a hard line. Maybe it's hard to know where to
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: draw that line. But I mean, there's so many aspects
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: to this. And I would wonder, myself, who would even
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: want to buy a car that has all that if
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: they know about it and how expensive such a vehicle
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: presumably would be. You'd almost think it would price itself
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: out of the market, and it's going to be like
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Cuba in the United States. Everybody's driving old cars that
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: have been fixed up time and time again. I'm driving
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: a classic 2003 F-150. I wouldn't have it any other way.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: That's right. It's wonderful.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Old school is going to become the only way to
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: go if you want, we call them freedom cars, Absolutely.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: Let's unpack that. So the first thing is it's absolute
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: fundamental unconstitutional surveillance of people in their private spaces without
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: a warrant. Okay, so it violates our Fourth Amendment rights.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: So here in the U.S., we have a constitution, we
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: have a Bill of Rights, and one of them is
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: the Fourth Amendment. And the government's not allowed to spy
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: on you or search your private spaces is how it's
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: basically worded. Without a warrant, there has to be probable
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: cause that you've committed some kind of crime before the
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: cops can just come in and raid your house or
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: look in your car or whatever, right? And so that's
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: what they're violating here. So on its face, it's unconstitutional. Well,
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: put that aside for a moment. Congress has done nothing,
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: including the Republican Congress, even when Trump came into office,
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: they have done nothing to repeal this technology from the cars.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: And what's really interesting for us here in Texas about that,
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: the whole legislative, like where we're at legislatively, Um, is
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: that now Senator Cruz is the chair of the Senate
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: commerce science and transportation committee. We have been to his
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: office multiple times. We've given him a coalition letter from
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: over 200 grassroots groups across the state of Texas. Most
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: of them, the ones that helped get him elected in
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: the first place, pleading with him to help us repeal
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: the kill switch and to get that in the next
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: highway bill, which by the way, is supposed to pass
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: this month in Congress. What they ended up doing a
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: few days ago was, you probably saw this, that Speaker
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: Johnson grabbed two Democrats to roll all the conservative wing
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: of the Republican Party that was trying to stop this
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: continuing resolution from passing. But they basically put the Biden
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: infrastructure bill and all the other federal spending on autopilot
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: until December. They wanted to put it off till after
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: the midterm election. Didn't want to deal with anything controversial.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: Didn't want to look at the highway bill. Didn't want
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: to pass all these things. So now we're like on hold.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: We're in, you know, waiting mode. But if the Republicans
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: lose the majority in either the Senate or the House,
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: you can pretty much guarantee that the kill switch is
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: going to continue moving forward. Now, we've heard from the
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: president's team, as well as Sean Duffy, who's his secretary
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: of transportation, that they oppose this kill switch technology and
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: they don't plan to finalize the rule. Technically, it doesn't
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: go into the cars until the rule's finalized, because the
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: manufacturers have to be directed of what actually has to
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: be included in this. But the draft rule already gives
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: them the the skeleton, the bones of how they need
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: to do this. It includes lane monitoring, eye monitoring, breath monitoring,
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: and touch sensors. So they're already developing this technology because
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: it's in the law and they're being mandated to do it.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: So our fear is now, let's say Republicans do well. Okay,
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: we'll do that scenario. And they come back in December
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: and try and figure out, now what are we going
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: to do with this highway bill? Are we going to
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: do this kill switch? What are we going to do?
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: Even if Congress repealed it today or in December, We
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: fear the manufacturers are still going to implement all of this,
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: even if there's not a government mandate, because now they've
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: spent so many billions of dollars developing the technology. They
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: want to have somewhere to land that technology and to
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: use it. And that's where it connects with these data centers.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: That's why we're seeing this rise of data centers all
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: over the country. It's not the existing AI we're using.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: It's because of the monitoring and the government surveillance they
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: plan to do that they need the data centers to
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: be able to store and compile all of that data
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: and use it against the people at the right time.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: And that's what we ultimately fear with this, is how
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: do we keep the manufacturers from putting this in the car?
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: So now our clarion call with Congress is no longer
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: repeal the kill switch statute. It's ban the technology altogether.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: That's got to be the way we go forward. Right.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: Because that way, in spite of their investments, and we
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: don't like to see the companies lose money necessarily, but
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: in spite of all those investments, they would simply be
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: prohibited from doing such an intrusive thing. And I want
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: to just add a little emphasis to what you said
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: about data centers, because I do another show here on
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: UK Column called Stateside, a compendium of U.S. news and developments.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: And I've covered data centers, including in person, one where
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: I got chased off the grounds by their security in
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: West Michigan.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: But so they're very sensitive about citizen perusal and monitoring.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: You're calling us terrorists. You heard that, right? They're calling
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: those who oppose data centers domestic terrorists in the United States.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: That's what they're calling us.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Right. But the thing is, is that I think a
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: lot of people are under the impression beyond concerns about
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: water usage, beyond concerns about the electrical load and all
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: these sundry things, water pollution, noise ordinances, noise nuisances, and
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: all that's important. But I think people look at the
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: technology and they're just thinking that it's a passive resource.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: In other words, I want to know who the first
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: president of Poland was. I'm going to look it up
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: on AI. And it's this big digital library, multiplicitous digital
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: libraries across the country, but something that's more or less passive.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: And I think that people are missing what you're saying there.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: And that is apparently that the data centers would have
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: an active two-way street function where they would be constructed
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: at least in part to actively monitor outside entities such
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: as ourselves and not simply be digital libraries, which I
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: think people have that impression. And so they're a more
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: active entity. They're not simply a digital library.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: Well, absolutely. That was one of the first things we
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: thought about when we discovered that this was in the
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: bill in 2022. We're like, look, how are they going
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: to monitor everything? You know, just in Texas, there's 33
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: million registered vehicles. So extrapolate that out among all 50 states.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: That is a massive amount of data. Who is going
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: to crunch all that data? Where are they going to
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: store it? Well, of course, the natural thing that pops
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: in your head is, well, that's why they're building all
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: these data centers. You have to have a massive amount
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: of infrastructure to monitor, actively monitor every single driver. And
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: then even worse is they're going to have some AI
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: algorithm or bot, whatever, that's going to flag a kill
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: switch event. And it could be all over America at
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: any given time. And that's one of the things we
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: talked about with the safety side of this, is think
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: about that. If they're flagging all of these kill switch events,
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: our own Federal Highway Administration has data that shows what
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: are the top three reasons for congestion in our country.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: It's really not lack of highway space. It's another three things.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: One of them is construction itself. So road construction, we
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: all know about the orange cones, right? That causes delay.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: Weather is a huge cause of delay. Well, the third
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: one is incidents, which is accidents or disabled cars across
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: the road. Can you imagine the number of incidents this
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: kill switch, false flag incidents that this could cause all
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: across our highways? There's not enough EMS workers employed today
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: to come deal with all of the cars that are
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: going to have a false flag kill switch incident where
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: most of the time it's going to be an innocent driver.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: It's technology is going to get it wrong because we
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: know it always does. and it's going to think that
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: you're drunk or you were distracted or whatever and you
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: were just, you know, trying to navigate around some construction
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: truck that put debris on the highway and you had to,
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: you know, swerve a few times and you need to
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: go on your merry way. Well, now you have to
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: get out of this kill switch event. That means somebody's
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: going to have to come do that or verify that,
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: whether it's law enforcement, a tow truck company. Who knows?
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: It could be your highway department. I don't know who
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: they're going to get to do all this. But there's
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: not enough manpower in America today to go deal with
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: all the incidents this is going to create. So it's
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: going to create even more congestion problems than we have today,
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: not to mention huge impacts to public safety. So if you're,
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: initially this is supposed to be about drunk driving, right?
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: So you're telling me that you're going to have someone
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: who's inebriated have the power cut to their car and
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: somehow safely cross two or three lanes of a crowded
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: highway and get onto a shoulder with no steering or
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: brakes or anything without killing other people. You think that's
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: more dangerous than keeping the drunk behind the wheel doing
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: what they're doing? I mean, this sounds even more dangerous
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: than just leaving the drunks alone. Not that I'm advocating
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: drunk driving, but you see where this goes. This is horrible. unsafe,
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: not to mention it violates our rights, and nobody wants
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: to live in an America that's a complete spy state
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: as soon as you leave your house.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: Indeed, run by this private consortium of interconnecting private-public partnerships,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: that sort of thing.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: The tech bros, yeah, exactly.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: An atrocious way to run a country as if it
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: isn't bad enough already. I'm glad to hear, though, as
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: one positive footnote that you've had measures of success and
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: also that conservatives and liberals are both seeing something they're
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: concerned about here because it's very important that we can
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: put aside certain political differences, at least for a little while,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: and unite a bit and put more pressure on the Democrats,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: not just the Republicans. So there's a broader coalition, if
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: you will, against these things. We can hope that that
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: will grow and become more and more effective. But I've
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: been writing about and thinking about and studying two things
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: that have a relation to one another. Foreign commercial driver's licenses,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: a huge issue in the States, and something that's also
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: happening in the UK, driverless rigs, which can be... 80,000
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: pounds or more. I just talked to a lifelong truck
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: driver who lives just down the street. He thinks this idea,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: like I do, is absolute insanity. Because one thing I'll
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: make a point of, and then we'll get into foreign
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: CDLs and driverless rigs and Waymo and all that, is that,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: and I'm sure you agree with this because it's so
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: blatantly obvious, the condition of the U.S. infrastructure right now,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: and that counts everything, water ports, waterways, water systems, sewer, highways, bridges,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: you name it, has been in disrepair for a long time.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: There are engineering groups that say that there's something like
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: two or three trillion needed to get the infrastructure where
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: it needs to be. And is it not true that
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: even if you thought that driverless vehicles were the way
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: to go, you would have to have near perfect infrastructure?
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: You can't have constant road work and construction where the
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: software and the sensors on these driverless vehicles would be confused.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Those cones weren't there yesterday. Now they're there today. There's
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: a dead animal in the road. There's a weather and
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: it blew a huge branch onto the street.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: Or there's an accident. The police have to clear a lane.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's lots of reasons why you do not
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: have perfectly open always perfectly marked highway lanes, right? They
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: also fade. We've also seen those, right? Like I'm out
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: in a rural area where a lot of times that
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: paint is barely there on some of these highways and
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: the sensors aren't going to pick that up. So yes,
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: these driverless trucks and vehicles, unfortunately, Texas is kind of
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: the brave new world that opened the door to this mess. Now,
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: let me tell you how the bill passed here in
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: Texas because it was really nefarious under the dark of night.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: So we testified in both the Senate and the House
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: Committee against the bill that was going to allow what
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: they call level four and level five autonomous trucks on
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: the road. And that includes vehicles like Waymo as well.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: But our big concern, obviously, is the trucks because of
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: the weight that's involved in those vehicles. Well, one of
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: the things that we brought up that nobody's been able
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: to answer, including when we went up to Washington, D.C.,
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: to try and get Congress up there to do something
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: about this as well, and that is what is to
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: keep a hostile nation or a bad actor from hacking
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: into these onboard systems and using these 85,000-pound trucks, because
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: in Texas they actually have now made it so you
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: can have an 85,000-pound load in these trucks, and what's
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: to keep a hostile actor from hacking into those and
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: using those trucks for a mass casualty incident? They could
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: run it into a military base. They could run it
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: into an airport or a Capitol building. I mean, it
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: could be any public place, a concert venue, whatever. It
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: can be used against us. And none of them have
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: the answer. They just have a deer in the headlights, right? Well,
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: the bill just kept moving through the system, even though
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: we had massive grassroots pushback against this for the same
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: reasons that your truck driver friend and you just, you know,
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: talking over the water cooler decided this is insane. Well,
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: so does everybody else. You know, everybody else who's a
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: normal thinking person can see that this is horribly dangerous
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: to allow these things to be on our roads. Well,
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: but you know, they get in that little kind of
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: insulated Capitol building, and they get lobbied, you know, the
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: fire out of by these four or five trucking companies
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: that have been trying to operate here in Texas, and
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: they're trying to get the legal ability to do it.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: And so it gets out of the Senate, comes over
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: to the House, it gets heard in the committee, barely
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: gets out of that committee, but it doesn't get to
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: the floor in time for a vote. So we thought
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: we had killed it. Okay, we ran out the clock. Well,
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: I get a call from an NPR reporter a couple
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: weeks after session was over and said, hey, I see
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: that you were opposed to this bill. What do you
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: think about the fact that it passed? And I was
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: in shock. I'm like, what? It passed? Well, then I
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: look it up and find out it was turned into
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: a 12-page amendment and put onto a totally unrelated bill, which,
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: by the way, is illegal in Texas. Now, Congress does
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: it all the time. But in Texas, you're not allowed
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: to put language onto a bill that's not related to
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: the base bill. It has to be related or germane.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: And so they got away with it and it was
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: in the dark of night, you know, in the last
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: hour that you could pass a house bill kind of
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: a thing. And so they snuck it on and that's
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: how these trucking companies got this bill passed. So now
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: we go up to DC and try and, you know,
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: ride all the cages up there. Well, they're literally citing
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: this Texas statute and talking about how all these 85,000
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: pound trucks are all over the state of Texas. And
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: there's been no accidents, no fatalities, nothing to see here.
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: All is going well. They're trying to use us as
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: an excuse to make this go nationwide, which we as
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: ordinary citizens are totally opposed to that. Then, we just
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: had a committee hearing last week, so this will be
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: interesting to you and your audience. And this was in
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: the Senate Transportation Committee here in Texas. And they had
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: these companies come up, and they're supposed to be reviewing
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: how this rollout has been going. Well, we find out
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: that there's driver assistance on a lot of these autonomous trucks.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: So they're really level four. They're not really level five.
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: Level five is completely driverless with no outside assistance. So
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: we're at level four right now where they can still
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: have a remote driver intervene when there could be a
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: truck going off the rails or failing to see an
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: accident or orange cones or whatever, and they can correct that.
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: So we see that as a way to cleanse their
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: safety record and make it look like, oh, these are
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: perfectly safe. We have a hundred percent You know, no
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: fault accident rate here in Texas, so let us keep
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: doing this. Nothing to see here. But we actually had
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: a great senator, Charles Perry, who came up and said,
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: when this technology fails. It's going to break in a
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: couple of years, you know, just like all technology wears
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: out fairly quickly. This is a nightmare, and it's going
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: to be unleashed on our Texas highways, and there are
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: no guardrails up right now. And that is something that
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: I think our legislature is looking to to explore because
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: none of the members got to debate this or amend it.
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: One of the amendments we had prepared for that bill
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: was to force them to have a human driver in
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: the car, that they cannot have these driverless vehicles out
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: there on the roads.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: Let me get some points of clarity in there. First
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: of all, where was Governor Abbott on the Texas legislature
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: breaking that rule where you can't add something to a
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: bill if it's not associated with the base purpose of
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: that bill? I enforce those kind of fundamental legislative and
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: parliamentary rules. I mean, it didn't happen.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: Well, here's what happens. They make their own rules because
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: they're a deliberative body. They make their own rules and
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: therefore they can break their own rules. We've caught them
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: breaking their rules all the time. In fact, they can
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: vote to suspend the rules. So one of the things
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: that happens is if one of our, like our guys
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: didn't catch it. Okay. So when I say our guys,
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: I mean like our conservatives and even the guy that
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: I had ready to do this, require a human driver
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: amendment for a bill like that. they didn't even catch it.
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: So if they don't catch it when it's happening and
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: call a point of order that says this isn't germane,
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: you can't do that, then it doesn't, you know, then
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: they can get away with it. The other thing is
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: the Texas House, okay, this is in a deep red state, right?
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: We're supposed to be a red state. They have hired
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: a parliamentarian that worked for the Obama administration. So we
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: basically have a leftist Obama administration leader lawyer that is
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: acting as our parliamentarian on those types of rulings in Texas.
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: And what we've seen happen repeatedly under this guy's watch
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: is that they will overrule points of order that are
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: legitimate and allow them to basically break the rules all
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: the time if it's what leadership wants. So you really,
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: you know, the rules are only there for basically the
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: bad guys to exploit. Whenever the good guys try to
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: use them, they just have their parliamentary overrule us and
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: they do it anyway. That's why corruption in government is
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: a thing.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: Let me get one other point of clarity, just so
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: it's crystal clear. Okay, think of an airplane, a commercial jetliner.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: If you put it on autopilot, the pilot is still there,
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: the pilots, there's more than one, to watch how the
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: plane is going and they can intervene at any time.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: So in a level four vehicle, does that mean it's
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: like an airplane where there's a driver in the vehicle,
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: but he can put it on autopilot? Or does it
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: mean there's someone external to the vehicle who's watching it.
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: That's right. It's external. So level four is external, no driver. Okay.
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: So they're still driverless, but they have what they have.
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: They call these driver assistance capability where someone from outside
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: the vehicle is at some headquarters somewhere that's monitoring all
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: of this and they'll get certain signals I'm assuming it's
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: all done with algorithms and AI that's probably what it
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: is right sensors on a car something that's warning them
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: that there's something they're not seeing right apparently when the
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: vehicle doesn't think straight or when it's not sure what
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: it's seeing it will ping the headquarters and let them
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: know and then they come in and say oh it's
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: a construction cone or, Oh, it's just bad weather or,
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: you know, whatever the issue is, they will, um, can
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: give it some kind of instruction about what the situation
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: is and they can actually take over the wheels, my
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: understanding and, um, navigate through some of the issues that the,
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: that the vehicle is having.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: Okay. So that would be kind of like a military
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: situation where, uh, obviously no one's on top of the
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: drone physically, but they can control the drone, uh, uh,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: From an outside control panel.
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: Okay. So then, I mean, I could almost understand it
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: if a driver is driving a semi and he wants
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: to do something and he puts it on autopilot for five,
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: 10 miles, does whatever he needs to do, eats a
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: sandwich and the vehicle's still moving as he's eating. And
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: then he takes over the wheel again, not unlike a
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: commercial jetliner. But here we're having people that are not
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: even in the cab.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: That's right. There's no human in the car.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: Right. And then level five is even worse. Again, point
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: of clarity, because British audiences are probably, at this point,
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: their jaws on the floor as they're hearing this.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: I hope so.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: And so you would have no person in the vehicle, obviously,
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: just like level four, but you would have virtually no
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: outside monitoring, if any at all. Which is where it
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: really gets insane, because, again, the infrastructure is so bad
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: and so unpredictable and so poor. prone to constant changes
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: in weather and all these things we've already talked about,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: that the sensors, besides simply interference with the signal, the
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: signal not working in a mountainous area, you're down in
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: a deep valley, all the different things that can interfere
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: with the signals, besides that, you just have the basic
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: idea that the sensors are going to misread things. And
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: there already have been instances, American Free Press just ran
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: an article where a vehicle, a semi, was shown that
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: had ran into a house. The semi had ran into
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: a house. And it was a driverless, I think it
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: was a driverless test, because I'm sure they're testing this
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: stuff all the time. And we'll get into Waymo, we'll
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: get into the Waymo thing in a moment. But the
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: other thing with level four and level five, and correct
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: me if I'm wrong before we move on, is that
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: at least level five, if not both of them, level
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: four and five, It's driving pretty much anywhere. It's not
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: some prescribed route that you repeat again.
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: And again and again. It's not a downtown circular like
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: a Waymo taxi where it's always the same streets, very
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: familiar territory where they can pretty much map it out
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: and always know what the scenarios are going to look like.
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: And it's very low speed, right, in those downtown circulars.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: You're not going, you know, 85 miles per hour like
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: you can do in Texas. So, yeah, it is a
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: huge difference, a big distinction there between all of that. Um, but,
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: but at the end of the day, I feel like
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: when you have a small, small number of these actually
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: out on the roads, and even though they say we've
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: had this many thousands of lane miles, you know, that
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: we've done this and there's been zero fatalities and no
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: accidents that are our fault, blah, blah, blah. You cannot
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: come close to extrapolating that out to the millions, tens
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: of millions of cars on Texas highways and act like
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: that somehow equivalent. I mean, any statistician or anyone that
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: does statistics or probabilities or an actuary can tell you,
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: you cannot extrapolate out a little tiny fraction of a
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: few companies doing this with calling that safe across all
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: of America's highways in all situations in all zones. I mean,
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: that's just insane to do that. And so that's what
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: they were basically trying to sell to the committee. And thankfully,
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: some of those senators weren't buying it. And we certainly
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: weren't when we came up to testify.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: Absolutely amazing and quite frightening. The, the arrogance, the audacity
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: that's behind this, you know, just this cowboy bonanza, a
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: gold rush mentality to, to do this no matter what,
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: to always put profit first over people when there should
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: be no dichotomy there. You know, those things should be
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: very carefully considered with the taxpayers coming first and our
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: constitutional rights.
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: Now we've, We've covered that ground, the kill switches. We've
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: looked at the previous stuff on the NAFTA superhighways, things
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: like that. Now, a corollary of the driverless rigs and
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: all that, there's two things. Let's touch on Waymo real quickly,
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: then we'll get into foreign CDLs and we'll begin to summarize.
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: But Waymo, as we indicated a minute ago, we hinted
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: at it. is a slower-moving, smaller vehicle, a standard vehicle evidently,
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: that would go on a predictable, regular route. And maybe
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: it would make deliveries and pickups. Maybe it would involve
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: both service, commercial businesses, as well as manufacturers and different things.
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: It's generally a taxi service right now.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: Oh, it's a taxi service, so it's not commercial.
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: It's like Uber. It's replacing Uber drivers is what it's doing.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay. Good point of clarity. I've only read up
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: on Waymo a little bit, but one thing I did read,
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: and it was on the TERF website this morning, Texans
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: United for Reform and Freedom, is that in Austin, the
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: Waymo vehicles have passed school buses, and the school buses
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: were signaling that they were dropping off or picking up children.
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: And the Waymo vehicles, if you and I do that,
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: we get a $ 300 or $ 400 ticket if we go
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: around a school bus. And I mean right now. But
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: I understand the Waymo more than once... in the Austin area,
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: that's the state capital of Texas, Waymo taxis have went
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: around these stopped buses signaling that they're picking up or
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: dropping off children.
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. And it's a horrible safety hazard. Not to mention,
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: I know some people, I know a business professional that
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: travels all over the country and he had to use
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: a Waymo once because he couldn't get an Uber driver,
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: a regular Uber. And he said he would never do
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: it again. He's like, I had no way to communicate.
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: I had to change something I was doing. I wanted
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: them to drop me off. Like, let's say it's a
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: convention center, these huge buildings, right? Well, you can put
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: in the address to the convention center in the technology,
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: but there's no driver to say, hey, I need you
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: to drop me off over here at Salon A or whatever, right? Like,
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: it doesn't know where to drop you off. In some cases,
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: we've seen the Waymos drop people off two lanes from
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: the curb. Like, they just stop in random places. It's
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: not a safe place to stop. It's not like you
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: can tell the driver, wait, wait, wait, move over, wait,
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: this is not safe, whatever. There's no way to communicate.
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: You literally go in and there's no driver in the car.
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: Then we have the issue of, there's another one that's
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: on our website, the Texas Turf website, is an instance
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: where the Waymo did not detect the tracks of a
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: light rail on a street. This was the street where
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: it had light rail down the middle and this car
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: turned this Waymo vehicle turns onto the light rail tracks
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: and the passengers immediately freak out and they had to
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: bail from the Waymo and at first Waymo wouldn't even
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: let them out because when the car's technically moving even
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: if it's slow and it hasn't stopped yet it won't
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: let you out but if they didn't bail from that
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: car they could have been hit by a light rail
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: car So it does show that that light rail is
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: coming right at this vehicle that's literally sitting on these
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: light rail tracks and wouldn't even let the passengers out.
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: So the fact that we don't have a human in
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: a car that can make those judgments and have human
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: intelligence behind it that obviously is going to put human
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: safety above everything else. Technology doesn't think the way we think.
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: It doesn't think. It doesn't have a brain. It is
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: a creature created by man, right? So there's no way
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: these things aren't going to fail us. We deal with
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: digital and technological devices all day long, and they constantly
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: fail us. So I don't see how this is safe.
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: It's insane that we're doing this. They can say that
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: they have a great safety record, whatever, but there's such
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: a small fraction of these on the road, you can't
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: possibly say that this has a better safety record than humans.
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: I literally heard them say this in committee. Better safety
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: record than human drivers.
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: According to whom?
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: And then the other thing we found out, by the way,
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: at that committee hearing that's so laughable is, do you understand?
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: I want you to know this. In that bill that passed,
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: because it was all an industry written bill, there was
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: no real debate. It just passed in the dark of night, right?
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: That no one was able to put any guardrails on it.
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: Let's put it that way. It was all written by
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: the industry. This is all self-reported safety data. There is
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: no requirement anywhere in Texas statutes that these entities have
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: to report any accident, near misses, or actual fatalities to
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: any government entity? So how are they actually going to
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: know what the safety record is when there's no single
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: clearinghouse for reporting any of it and there's nothing that's mandated? Now,
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: how many times would you report to the government that
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: you were speeding? Would you do that? Because you know
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: you'd get in trouble, right? So why would these companies
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: have any motivation to volunteer their crash data or their
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: near-miss data or the sensors going wrong or some other
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: technological snafus that happen on these cars and trucks, they're
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: not even mandated to report it to any one clearinghouse
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: in government. So we really have no idea what the
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: safety records are other than what they self-report.
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: My goodness, another plank of insanity here.
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: It is.
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: It's really hard to comprehend. I mean, at the base
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: of it is this undue influence of corporate power and government. And,
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm sure that's why Governor Abbott has such
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: a huge war chest and nobody wants to challenge him. Right.
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: And things like that. And, you know, some people claim
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: he's kind of a tool of the bushes behind the scenes.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure that's still true. But I'll put that
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: out there. They can chew on that if they want to.
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: I don't care. But at any rate, let's touch on
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: foreign commercial driver's licenses a little bit, which, of course,
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: relates to border security in a sense. And I want
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: to mention also that about a year ago, as I
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: understand it, you did get the Transportation Secretary of the U.S., Mr. Duffy,
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: to move on a rule or to enact a rule
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: that at least partly addressed, I believe it was CDLs,
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: correct me if I'm wrong, but that's been about a
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: year if I understand it. Has that had some longevity?
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: Has that situation stayed the same? Has it gotten better?
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: Has it worsened? What is Secretary Duffy doing, if anything,
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: that has meaningful, lasting remedies in this? So a little
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: bit of foreign CDLs, a little bit about Secretary Duffy
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: and the Department of Transportation, and we'll kind of wind
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: our way out of this.
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: Sure. Okay. So one thing about that I want to
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: clarify is we actually did a coalition letter, again, with
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: these 200 grassroots groups across and leaders of groups across
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: the state of Texas. What our letter to Duffy was
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: about was applauding him and the administration, the Trump administration,
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: for doing the crackdown on CDLs to foreign drivers. So
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: we didn't actually push the cart. We were responding to
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: him actually doing the crackdown. And we were encouraging him
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: to do more because one of the things he also
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: did was he did an audit to find out who
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: are the worst offenders. Like they needed to know where
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: to go to like start fixing the problem, right? Well,
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: Texas is one of the top five states in America
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: of of issuing CDLs to foreign drivers. So we're one
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: of the worst offenders, okay? I think we're the only
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: red state in the top five. Most of them are
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: like New Jersey and California, New York, that kind of thing.
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: So it really was a black stain on Texas that
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: this was the red state that's, you know, one of
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: the worst offenders of doing this. Now, there's been much
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: more enforcement action being taken in other states rather than Texas,
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: which is also telling about Abbott's leadership style. DeSantis literally
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: embedded Fox News reporters with Duffy's people and all the
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: people in DOT and DHS and everybody that was doing
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: an enforcement crackdown over in Florida. And they were actively
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: seeking to revoke and find, or I should say find
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: the foreign drivers and revoke their licenses. And we actually
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: got something in the Republican Party platform just a few
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: months ago here in Texas that not only calls for
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: an end to issuing CDLs to foreign drivers and Two,
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: we want them to seek the drivers down and revoke
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: their license, which is not happening at an active enough
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: rate here in Texas. And third, if they're here illegally,
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: we want them deported immediately. Okay, so that's what our
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: platform calls for right now in the state of Texas.
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: But that's not what's really happening here. Now, Oklahoma's had
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: some enforcement action. They've also embedded with ICE, and they're
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: working with immigration to say, hey, if you're here illegally
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: and we catch you as a CDL with a foreign driver,
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: can't read or speak English, you're on our roads, you're
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: breaking our laws, you're going back. So they're deporting people
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: immediately on some of the enforcement actions we've seen in Oklahoma.
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: We've been calling on Texas to do that. We've been
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: calling on Governor Abbott to do that here in Texas,
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: and we have yet to see it. Now, there has
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: been some enforcement action we learned about at this committee
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: hearing last week, because not only were they talking about
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: the autonomous trucks, they were also talking about the CDLs
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: to foreign drivers and some of the dangers that we're
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: seeing there. And some of the statistics we found out
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: at that hearing were also very telling. We are one
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: of the top states in the country for accidents with
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: commercial trucks. Okay? So that is a fact right there.
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: So that's one of the things where they try to,
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: these autonomous truck companies are trying to claim that, oh, see,
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: we're safer than these human drivers because look, we're so
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: terrible with how we, how we do this. Well, maybe
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: it's not the human driver in the sense of an
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: English speaking driver on roads that have English signs on them.
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: Maybe the problem is that we have too many foreign
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: truckers driving on roads with English signs and they can't
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: read or speak English. Maybe that's why we have so
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: many accidents with commercial trucks. So again, you know, they
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: take these little slivers of data and they try to
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: manipulate them to their narrative, but that's not really what's
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: relevant and it's not what's scientific in how you analyze
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: that data. So it is a huge problem in Texas.
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: We want to see more done. It's now in the platform.
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: We think that we are going to be able to
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: push the envelope more. And our legislature is doing this
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: interim study on it, which we started last week, where
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: they're really looking into the issue and finding out where
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: are the problems and what do we need to do
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: differently to get these drivers off the road. So I
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: do think that there is going to be a push
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: from our Texas legislature. Now, when you get the special
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: interests involved, will it be sausage by the time it's
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: done on the other end? Probably, because that's what we
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: honestly see a lot of in Texas. But we, from
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: our viewpoint, are going to be very, very vigilant in
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: trying to protect for road safety and protect Texas drivers
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: from these types of situations. We are absolutely going to
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: be all over this.
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the CDL thing, an important point of clarity is
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: you have someone who's here illegally, and that, of course,
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: is breaking our immigration laws. But then they're allowed to
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: drive very heavy loads of merchandise for hundreds, if not
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: thousands of miles. And it's not just the fact that
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: they may not be able to read the signs and
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: they may not be able to communicate well because they
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: don't speak much, if any, English. Communicate well with law enforcement.
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: Communicate well with other people that are involved in their trucking.
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: But it's also sort of the trucking culture, isn't it?
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: You have to be sort of climatized to drive on
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: American roads. You have to know the rules of the road.
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: And some of that comes with experience. So they're going
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: to come here... relatively inexperienced, along with the language barrier,
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: along with the fact that they're here illegally, and along
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: with the fact that all of that is tied to
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: the fact that they're hauling very heavy loads of merchandise,
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: and so on. So you mix that together, and then
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: you have the driverless rig thing, and there's sort of
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: a dynamic there. Of course. The driverless people will say, Well,
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: you know, you have these CDL, foreign CDLs, that brings
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: a certain amount of peril and dangers and problems. So
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: why not move over to driverless rigs? I think it
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: sounds like they'll exploit the CDL thing to try and
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: justify the driverless thing.
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: That's what it sounds like. That's exactly what we saw
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: happening on Tuesday. And, you know, we had testimony from
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: our Texas Department of Public Safety yesterday. And one of
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: the officers, Captain Villarreal, was talking about this huge problem
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: and how their hands are tied in some ways because
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: some of these do dovetail with federal laws because they
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: have these trucking schools. Some of them are for-profit schools.
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: Some are private schools that train their own truck drivers.
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: And there's also the fact that we have to allow
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: CDLs from other states onto our roads because of the
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: interstates and the way that works. And so a lot
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: of the accidents that may happen here are not necessarily
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: from those who get their license in Texas. This could
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: be from other states like Illinois and California and places
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: that are the worst offenders of this. We have to
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: allow those drivers on our roads basically. And yet our
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: citizens and our people are the ones that are at
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: danger and at risk for this. But one of the
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: things that they were finding when they investigated some of
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: these schools is that the threshold in Texas is almost
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: too laissez-faire and too low in some ways, so that's
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: one of the areas that they were asking the lawmakers
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: to give them better tools, because all they have to
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: show is mastery of basic maneuvers, and they have to
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: have a minimum hours behind the wheel. Well, what they
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: found in some of these investigations into these trucking schools
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: that are issuing these licenses is they'd have five or
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: six guys sitting in a rig, all showing them the
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: things in the car or whatever, and they called that
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: behind-the-wheel time.
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: Oh, good Lord.
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: When not one of them was driving, they were just
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: sitting behind the wheel, getting verbal instruction about what, you know,
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: how the truck works without actually driving the truck. And,
• 57:51
  Speaker 2: and basically they're passing people that are not actually trained.
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: And so that is another problem is cracking down on
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: these schools that are issuing the licenses, because really at
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: the end of the day, our American companies know if
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: these people aren't speaking or reading English, how are you
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: giving them the test? How are they passing the test?
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: If they can't speak or read English, Well, that means
• 58:11
  Speaker 2: the truck driving schools are complicit in this as well.
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: And so that's another area where we can do a
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: lot of crackdown. I think we need to do much
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: better at the testing sites and making sure we know
• 58:24
  Speaker 2: who's doing those tests and making sure that they're doing
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: them in English only and that there's English proficiency demonstrated
• 58:30
  Speaker 2: in how they do that. But they also need to
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: be going after the schools that are training these drivers
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: and making sure they're actually doing behind-the-wheel training and more
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: than just mastery of basic skills Maybe there has to
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: be a much more detailed requirements for them, detailed in statute.
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: And I actually went up there and joked. I'm like, look,
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: I have 10 kids, right? I have a new teen
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: driver coming online every two years in my house, OK?
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: So I know a lot about what is required of
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: these teen drivers. And I literally told them, you are
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: requiring more. You put my teen driver through more rigor
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: to get their license than you are these commercial truck
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: drivers that are carrying 85,000 pound loads across our highways.
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: and you know if anyone doesn't remember we've already had
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: a foreign trucker that killed a family on Austin in
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: Austin Texas on I-35 that ran into a family because
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: they weren't reading the road signs right and could not
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: have you know didn't have English proficiency but we also
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: had trucks that on our ice storm if you remember
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: a It ran into stopped traffic and had 133 car
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: pile up that killed six Texans and literally was flipping
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: cars on the opposite side of the highway and got hit. Oh, boy.
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: So think about the impact of these trucks and how
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: dangerous these situations get when you're dealing with that kind
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: of weight and the kind of loads that they can
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: carry and the kind of speeds that they can drive
• 59:54
  Speaker 2: in Texas. They can go up to 85 miles per
• 59:56
  Speaker 2: hour on Texas highways. So we really do need to
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: be doing a better job of not only training the
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 2: truck drivers, making sure the testing is done properly. And
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: there's no way they can't screen out somebody who doesn't
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 2: speak or read English. And then, you know, we saw
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: in New York, I don't know if you remember seeing
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 2: that article, they were literally issuing CDLs to drivers that
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: had no name given. It literally said no name given.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: Like they don't even care who you are. I literally
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: was joking that I'm like, It sounds like from this
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: Captain Villareal here in Texas that was talking about what
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: they've been finding at some of these trucking schools. I'm like,
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 2: it sounds like you can just go order it like
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: you can order fast food and they just hand it
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: to anybody who comes through the line. I mean, that's
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: ultimately what we're seeing in some of these schools. So
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of bad actors out there
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: that need to have a crackdown and need to have
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 2: some of these things create felonies, not just misdemeanors. And
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: start putting some of these people behind bars because all
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 2: of them are complicit in the safety hazards we're seeing
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 2: all across America's highways with these very high-profile accidents where
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: they're killing people, in some cases wiping out entire families
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: in one accident. So we really need to get serious
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 2: about it, and I think that Texas is trying to
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: do that. But we really need to go after the
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: bad actors and put more teeth into our statues.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Abbott and the top legislators need to get some
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: very serious letters in their mailboxes right away on this.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: That's it, yeah.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: Anyway, summarizing, Terry, kind of wrapping it up here, I'll
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: just make a quick commentary that when it comes to
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: the foreign CDL issuance, of course, that's an outgrowth of
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: the long supply chains of the free trade system and
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: the largely still, um, too open border. In other words,
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: the U.S. southern border is still not as secure as
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: it ought to be. You combine that with the long
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: supply chains and the need for all these long-distance deliveries
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: around the world and in the United States, and the
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: consequence is some of the trucking issues and policies are
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: harebrained and dangerous, though they are. That's the consequence of
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: the free trade system. It's the consequence of not having, again,
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: proper border enforcement. Because if you're here illegally, that's one issue.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: But if you're here illegally and your intent is to
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: get a CDL, then that adds the next link in
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: the chain. So what's needed is more general border security
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: on a fundamental level and on a more general sense.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: And that would then cut the number of people coming
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: here illegally. And then in turn, that would cut the
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: number of people that could have a chance to get
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: a CDL. So there's sort of a cause and effect
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: going on here with the free trade system, the long
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: supply chains around the world that are pushed by the
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: globalist sect, and all of that.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 2: Let's not forget, we've been opposed to this since NAFTA, okay,
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: because we opposed the Mexican cross-border trucking program way back
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 2: under Bush, Bush 43, when all of this stuff started
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: coming down the pike into Texas. We didn't want Mexican
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: drivers on our roads because most of them didn't read
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: or speak English. It's the same issue we're talking about today.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: So we've been opposing these things for a very long time.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 2: So obviously the open borders and the free trade crowd
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: are the, this is the result. We're now way downhill
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: of all of those bad decisions and we're seeing people
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: dying because of it. But some of the things that
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: I can tie in there are, you know, under Rick Perry,
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 2: Texas now has more foreign trade, foreign free trade zones
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 2: than any other state in the union.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 2: So that means they get to park their goods on these,
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 2: basically what they, it's almost like an embassy where it's
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: like a foreign, you know, zone. It's not even, Texas
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: sovereign territory any longer. And they get to have tax-free
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: zones where they sit and park their goods when American
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 2: companies like Walmart or Amazon, they have to pay property
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: tax on all of those sites where they hold those goods,
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: the just-in-time delivery and all of that. But these foreign
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 2: companies get the tax breaks and don't have that same
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 2: anti-competitive environment that these foreign trade zones allow. So that
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 2: just incentivizes all these trucking companies to use the foreign trucks,
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 2: to use the long haul instead of your local delivery,
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: buying local, keeping things local. Not to mention, this is
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 2: taking away very high-paying jobs from American drivers. Just like
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 2: you have truck driving friends. I have a nephew that's
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 2: a truck driver. Actually, I have two nephews that drive trucks.
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 2: Another niece that works at a trucking company. I have
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 2: my daughter that works for a logistics firm that's for
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 2: a trucking company. So we know a little bit about this.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: And all of them can't stand what's been going on.
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 2: I mean, these American drivers know and have to interact
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: with these foreign drivers. They know it's dangerous. They know
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: it's a mess. Many of them have lost their jobs
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 2: to them, and they just keep undercutting pay, undercutting pay.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 2: But these are normally pretty high-paying jobs, $ 70, 000 to $ 100, 000
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 2: a year in some cases. Some of them are all local,
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 2: and you can get home at night and have a
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: really great life and career, even a family life, driving
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: a truck. But this is taking away jobs, and it's
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 2: really not America first. And so all of this ties in.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 2: You know, it's like we want America first. We want
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 2: American truckers for American jobs first. We want that to
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: be the priority. We want our borders closed. We don't
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 2: need foreign truck drivers. We don't need foreign trucks. And
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 2: not to mention the crime.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: Issue, right?
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 2: We haven't talked about the trafficking that can come in,
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 2: the drugs that can come in through these foreign trucks
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: onto our roads. Why do you think you have a
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 2: lot of these foreign drivers coming in? Well, because maybe
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 2: they have some nefarious loads that they're carrying and they
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: know American drivers won't do it. So this is a
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 2: big issue too when it comes down to crime and
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 2: trafficking and what kind of loads they're carrying. We had
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: that one big bust here in San Antonio. Remember where
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: they had literally dozens of people trapped in the back
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 2: of that big rig. Many of them had died from
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 2: the heat because it was in the middle of the
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 2: hot summer with no provisions for these poor people. They
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 2: were being starved to death, dehydrated, and being trafficked across
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 2: the border. and what happens when they stop them. I mean,
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 2: the truck drivers just bail, and these poor people are
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 2: left sitting there. So it's a crime issue as well
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 2: as a free trade issue, and I think all of
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 2: it makes our country so much safer if we put
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 2: Americans behind the wheel and those that are obviously proficient
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 2: in English and being able to read and speak it,
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 2: but also just being well-trained, right? It sounds like a
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 2: lot of these trucking schools aren't even training some of
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: these drivers, and that could be even an American driver
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 2: that isn't getting the training that they need to be
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 2: truly safe behind the wheel. So I think we need
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 2: more rigorous testing before people get a CDL to make
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 2: sure that we do a big overhaul of our current
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 2: system because it's obviously been horribly exploited and abused for
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 2: far too long.
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and the point that you make there about the
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: people tragically dying in the back of that truck, I
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: want to stress there that those that believe in strict
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: border security are not anti-humanitarian. Of course not. an open
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: border is actually an exploitative thing. It absolutely is. The
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: people that come here illegally, especially during the hot summer,
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: are put at an unnecessary risk being lured across the
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: border by rosy promises, by the grass is always greener
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: on the United States side of the hill, and therefore
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: the open border acts contrary to a humanitarian thing and oftentimes,
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: maybe not always, but oftentimes results in tragedy. So those
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: who believe that open borders are the only humanitarian way
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: to go need to do some more thinking about that.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: It's not that simple. It has never been that simple.
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: So that being said, the only thing I would add
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: to what you said is, you know, the driverless thing
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: at best would be something that a human driver in
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: the cab of the truck could temporarily maybe put it
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: on autopilot for a few minutes if he or she
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: had to, and then resume control of the truck.
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: Similar to a Tesla. I mean, we see that in
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 2: a Tesla, right, where they have the auto driving features
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: for temporary periods of time. But Tesla requires a human
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 2: driver to be in there. They don't let you and
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 2: they don't let you sleep. Like they won't let you
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 2: just go take a nap. You have to be awake, alert.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 2: Like you said, you might be doing something else in
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 2: your car, you know, taking a drink or eating some food, whatever.
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 2: But there's a driver that can immediately, as soon as
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 2: their hands go back on that wheel, they get control back.
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 2: And we're not seeing that with these, uh, level four
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 2: and level five autonomous vehicles, extremely dangerous. And there's no
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 2: driver in the car at all. There's no one to
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 2: take over the wheel. What happens if the sensor goes bad?
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 2: What happens if mud or something covers that? What happens
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 2: if it just, you know, goes out or loses connection
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 2: or whatever the issues are inside these vehicles. There's, they,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 2: they all claim to, to have, you know, multiple contingencies,
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 2: you know, fail safes and such. But at the end
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 2: of the day, we all know that those can fail too. So, um,
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: The safest way to go is to have a human
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 2: driver behind these cars, and they need to be well trained,
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 2: and they need to have the right schooling to make
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 2: that happen.
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: Well, for any articles I might write on this, Terry,
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: for UK Column News, I'll get updates from you from
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: time to time on legislative action at the state and
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: federal level to see where else you and your associates,
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: may make some headway on these issues. It sounds like
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: the CDL issue, the legislators at the state and federal
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: level are a little bit more responsive, but when it becomes,
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: when it comes to the driverless thing, all of a
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: sudden they're very tone deaf. And so we need to
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: see how that irons out. But thanks for being with
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: me today. in this early September interview on these very
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: key issues. And ladies and gentlemen, you've been listening to
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: Terry Hall out of San Antonio, Texas. I'm Mark Anderson
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: with UK Column News. Be on the lookout for any
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: writings I might do about driverless vehicles in the UK
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: and Europe. I'll just make that final point. So thanks again, Terry.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, have a great day. We'll see you next time
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: here on UK Column News. I'm Mark Anderson.