DRIVING THE DAY: Opening arguments in one of the most-watched political trials of the year are expected to get underway this morning in federal court in San Francisco.

Defendant David DePape is scheduled to stand trial in the attack last year on Paul Pelosi, the husband of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, in the couple’s home in the city. DePape, who faces charges of attempted kidnapping and assault, has pleaded not guilty, though the video evidence against him is daunting. The trial is expected to last less than a week.

THE BUZZ: Robotaxis are under the microscope in California, but another type of automated driving system is still in play, and, as some see it, under the radar.

Tesla for years has offered an autopilot feature on its vehicles that it says enhances safety and convenience behind the wheel. It has also been the subject of private lawsuits and questions from state and federal officials about whether the safety features are sufficient to prevent serious harm.

Because it’s not a passenger service and not fully autonomous, Tesla’s self-driving technology isn’t subject to the same state regulation as services like Waymo and Cruise, which just had its permits pulled by the DMV over complaints about safety and accusations of misrepresenting reports.

That distinction between fully autonomous and driver-assisted technology has let Tesla’s self-driving technology fly under the radar, tech exec Dan O’Dowd argues, despite its reported involvement in more than a dozen fatalities and hundreds of crashes across the country.

“They’re nowhere near the standards that self-driving cars are at, and yet they’ve done a wide release to everybody,” said O’Dowd, who is the founder and chief executive of Green Hills Software. “Tesla needs to be held to the same standards, because they’re putting it on the road.”

O’Dowd has spent years sparring publicly with CEO Elon Musk and Tesla, which defends its technology. He has called for the vehicles to be removed from public roads until a greater level of safety rigor can be met. Tesla’s missteps were the sole focus of O’Dowd’s 2022 California Senate bid, and the subject of a 30-second Super Bowl ad, which warned 115 million viewers that “Tesla’s Full Self-Driving is endangering the public.”

Now O’Dowd is taking California lawmakers on the road — showing them what he says are the failures of the system’s safety features and urging them to take action.

Rep. Salud Carbajal and state Sen. Monique Límon recently rode with O’Dowd on a demonstration of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology — where the car failed to stop at several test points set up by O’Dowd’s team. At one point, the car ran over a child-sized mannequin.

Carbajal in a statement said the test was concerning and revealed a number of worrying defects. He said his office is examining “appropriate legislative action.”

Limón, who sits on the Senate transportation committee, said the ride showed fully autonomous vehicles have a long way to go.

“My team and I are monitoring any legislative options available to ensure that self-driving systems active on California’s roads are made safe for public use,” she said in a statement.

Tesla lawyers have rebuffed O’Dowd’s accusations that its Full Self-Driving feature isn’t safe, sending him a cease and desist letter last year (that he ignored).

“The purported tests misuse and misrepresent the capabilities of Tesla’s technology,” the company’s lawyers wrote. “And disregard widely recognized testing performed by independent agencies as well as the experiences shared by our customers.”

Self-driving technology was the focus of a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last year that prohibits misleading marketing of semi-autonomous driving features, like the ones deployed by Tesla. The California DOJ has reportedly launched an investigation into Tesla over its autopilot safety and advertising, though a spokesperson said the department can’t confirm or deny a potential or ongoing investigation.

Tesla’s system is still considered to be driver assistance technology, and is not covered by the DMV’s autonomous vehicle regulations.

However, the department has launched an enforcement action against the company’s manufacturer and dealer licenses for allegedly misleading and false advertising regarding the use of the term “Full Self-Driving” and description of “Autopilot.”

A DMV spokesperson said the department can’t comment on pending enforcement actions. We also reached out to Tesla for a response and didn’t hear back.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is still in the midst of a years-long investigation into Tesla after what it says was an accumulation of crashes in which Tesla vehicles, operating with Autopilot engaged, struck stationary in-road or roadside first responder vehicles.

Despite the agency actions, O’Dowd is still hoping for tougher guardrails out of Sacramento.

And with the growing concern around AI, he could end up getting them.

“We need something to make people safe,” he said. “That’s the job of the legislature — to pass reasonable safety rules.”

GOOD MORNING. Happy Thursday. Thanks for waking up with Playbook.

PLAYBOOK TIP LINE — Have you used a driverless taxi in California? How was it? Did it raise any safety concerns? Give us a ring or drop us a line.

Now you can text us at ‪916-562-0685‬‪ — save it as “CA Playbook” in your contacts now. Or drop us a line at [email protected] and [email protected], or on Twitter —@DustinGardiner and @Lara_Korte

WHERE’S GAVIN? Nothing official announced.

STRIKE OUT: Hollywood’s summer (and fall) of strikes is poised to come to a close, after the actors’ union struck a tentative deal with the major entertainment studios Wednesday. The agreement, roughly six weeks after the writers’ guild ended their own historic work stoppage, would boost minimum pay for members, increase residuals for programs streamed online and establish new rules for the use of artificial intelligence, per the Los Angeles Times.

The union still must vote on final approval of the contract, but the prospect of Los Angeles’ signature industry fully returning to business was welcome news for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who said the deal “is going to impact nearly every part of our economy,” and added a plug to “lean in” on local production.

POLL POSITION: Voters are inclined to support ballot initiatives expanding rent control (55-43) and raise California’s minimum wage to $18 (67-31), according to a new Public Policy Institute of California poll — although those numbers come before opposition campaigns ramp up. PPIC also found that Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Katie Porter remain statistically tied atop the U.S. Senate race. Take a look.

MEET THE MAYORS: Skid Row in Los Angeles is not anyone’s idea of a tourist destination. But today, Mayor Karen Bass will be bringing a gaggle of out-of-towners to tour the epicenter of the city’s homelessness crisis.

The visitors are more than 20 mayors from across the state and country in town for the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ National Convening on Homelessness. Since June, Bass has chaired the group’s task force on the issue, a role that dovetails with her all-hands approach to the daunting task of solving the city’s most intractable problem.

With plenty of other cities facing their own homelessness crisis, the confab is meant to spark collaboration on the issue. The Skid Row visit will, in Bass’ words, “show the consequences of inaction.” The group will also stop at the nearby Hilda L. Solis Care Village — a temporary shelter made up of repurposed shipping containers — to see an example of interim housing that can be built quickly. Also on the agenda is a panel featuring Neera Tanden, domestic policy advisor to President Biden.

— Melanie Mason

BLURRED LINES — Rep. Barbara Lee is apparently a fan of the outside super PAC backing her campaign for U.S. Senate.

Federal election law bars candidates from directly coordinating with super PACs, committees that can raise unlimited money. But that didn’t stop Lee from promoting the latest video ad from She Speaks for Me, the PAC supporting her campaign.

In a tweet Wednesday, Lee embedded the PAC’s ad that promotes her decades-long track record as a longtime progressive and anti-war advocate.

Lee’s campaign said she was merely sharing the video after it went public. Still, Playbook heard about the incident from people close to the campaigns of rival candidates Schiff and Porter.

ESTATE SAGA — The late Sen. Dianne Feinstein died more than a month ago. But the family legal battle over the fortune amassed by her late husband, billionaire financier Richard Blum, continues to drag on outside of court.

Attorneys representing the senator’s daughter, Katherine Feinstein, trustees for Blum’s estate and his three adult daughters are scheduled to hold their first mediation session today.

Despite the elder Feinstein’s passing, Katherine Feinstein, a retired judge, has sought to continue litigation over her mother’s estate. She has filed suit against the Blum trust to force payments to her mother’s estate and to compel the sale of a family vacation home in Stinson Beach.

The judge presiding over the estate drama previously ordered the parties to attempt to settle the dispute through private mediation — and today’s negotiations could be a first step.

PARACHUTE REPORTING: Journalists descending on San Francisco for the APEC summit next week will inevitably be focused on “Doom Loop” narratives about the city’s struggles. A pair of veteran SF reporters have crafted a tongue-in-cheek guide for these visitors. (San Francisco Chronicle)

CITIBANK IN HOT WATER: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined Citibank almost 25 million Wednesday for discriminating against Armenian Americans in credit card applications. Citi claimed it was trying to thwart a fraud ring in California. (CNN)

HISTORIC WIN — San Diego City Council Member Monica Montgomery Steppe notched a historic win in Tuesday’s election when she became the first Black woman elected to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. Montgomery Steppe, also a member of the state’s reparations task force, told supporters she is “humbled, honored and ready to get to work.”

BIRTHDAYS — Marie Baldassarre of Rep. Ro Khanna’s (D-Calif.) office … Jill Shatzen Kerr … Elise Norris … Trevor W. Eischen

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