GadZoox! Waymo Shit on Our Streets
Don’t Step in It
Before you take a ride, take a good, long look at what motivates you to do so.
With the advent of “autonomous vehicles” have come their proponents’ claims about accident avoidance and safer streets. First of all, I’ll stick to using the term robocar; autonomous vehicles can include trucks, buses, trains . . . maybe airplanes one day. I’m all for that. But even if one stipulates to the possibility of reducing traffic accidents with an increasing prevalence of robocars on San Francisco’s streets, urban arteries of social intercourse, there is a far more substantive charge to level against Waymo for how they pit limited advantages for the few against a multiplicity of disadvantages for the many. That’s a fancy way to say that, no matter how well they work or how cool their technology is, Waymo and its ilk are both unnecessary and unfair.
Waymo, in particular, but other companies, too, have already deepened the rift of inequality in San Francisco. While Waymo arguably offers convenience and efficiency to those who can afford it, they make driving a miserable experience for the rest of us. Robocars exist in lieu of unhindered mobility for private cars and also stand in the way of improving public transit.
