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Waymo self-driving car tests the Tribeca streets
P. caught this shot: it’s a Waymo car in “autonomous mode,” meaning the driver you see here is just along for the ride. It’s a taxi! Driving itself!
In late August, the city just permitted the company to spend a couple months testing here — eight cars let loose in Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn with a “trained specialist” behind the wheel at all times. (Waymo also had to first secure permits from the New York state Department of Motor Vehicles.)
The company currently offers rides with these vehicles — they are called AVs — in LA, San Francisco, Phoenix, Atlanta and Austin, with plans in the works for Miami and D.C.
The mayor’s press release noted that this is only a test: “The use of autonomous vehicles for for-hire service is currently prohibited by New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission rules.” And the state also prohibits autonomous cars unless a driver is behind the wheel.
“We’d love to bring the safety, reliability, and magic of Waymo to New York, but first need state lawmakers to allow fully autonomous operations,” a press rep from Waymo said. “We’re advocating for those changes, and engaging with city and state leaders as we introduce our technology to New York.”
The City reported that a 2021 state bill would lift the requirement for a human driver, but it has not moved has not moved forward.
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Tried three times in SF. Felt very safe, but it is strange.
I don’t like this one bit.
I’m a modern person with a healthy respect and appreciation for technology. But I don’t really trust these things in the edge cases that cities often present.
The people behind these corporations do not care that their experiments can cost lives or limbs.
You may not trust the driverless cars but humans are even less deserving of your trust. According to the NIH, driverless cars are 80% less likely to be involved in a crash resulting in injury (link to study below). Driverless technology is improving daily and humans aren’t so the advantage will widen over time. The driverless car never has one cocktail too many, looks at its iPhone in traffic or turns its head around to yell at the kids.
People who would outlaw driverless cars despite overwhelming evidence apparently “do not care that their biases can cost lives or limbs.”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39485678/
The data is compelling in those cities and I look forward to seeing it for NYC where the streets are narrow and the pedestrians are everywhere. The AVs may be predictable and careful, but the humans on the mean streets of New York are often anything but. I’m curious to see what that data will say.
i see them in Los Angles all the time. I have driven beside them, behind them and around them.I think they are way more predictable/reliable than a human driver. I have not yet used the service, but i will. my los angles family tells me a lot of parents use WayMo to transport their kids to activities after school etc bc they feel it safer than an Unkown/vetted Uber driver. makes some sense to me, particularly for tweens and teens who don’t yet drive.
however i do understand that NY and LA are so different and then there is the issue of displacing taxi drivers.
Been in them in San Francisco and Austin. Got in with lots of reservations. Got out knowing this will be future. Safer, smoother, cleaner. A much better drive, no stop start, no rushing to the lights to ram on the breaks, no weaving around irrationally, no shouting, no tension, total awareness of where all the other vehicles and people are. Shockingly good. Over 50% of rides in SF today – so people like it