“Waymo has filed a request to the California Public Utilities Commission to expand robotaxi service in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles region. In the SFBA, it grows from just San Francisco to the whole peninsula, all the way to Sunnyvale but not including Marin, the East Bay and Santa Clara/Cupertino/San Jose. The LA area includes everything north and west of Compton, but not the San Fernando valley.”
This is massive I’m not really sure what the writer is on about with the title.
Waymo have been in the background making slow and steady progress for years. So much so most people probably don’t even know the extend of their self driving (without a human behind the wheel) developments.
This could be the beginning of the big push to actual serious market infiltration.
While walking, cycling, electric mobility, and trains are a must for a healthy city they do run into problems. Mainly the last mile problem and unexpected journeys, self driving cars will make a huge impact on the health of cities, traffic and ease of getting around.
God forbid we have public transit instead of fucking cars everywhere. There’s no need for buses or trains when we can spend huge amounts of energy to autonomously move two tons of metal for each and every individual that exists.
Humanity is not running to ruin. It’s taking a car.
Yes.
But I also see this being more like a mini bus situation. 10 people to a car instead of 1.
If that then frees up traffic there is a lane for rail, that rail is easier to access from a larger area, would require no parking or planned transport at the destination.
Quite bluntly American cities are terrible, the big ones need more rail even NYC. Lots of places in Europe are identical. But this could be the shot in the arm that urban planners need, the change in politics and the landscape that could allow them to say “same proposal as last year. Can we build a train? … did you just say yes? You fucking with me? Can we really build a much needed train here? … Oh thank Christ”