4 Comments
User's avatar
Neural Foundry's avatar

Love the observaton about Waymos obeying speed limits creating traffic slowdowns. That's the kind of second-order effect that doesn't show up in engineering specs but matters in real urban flow. The pedestrians jaywalking assumption is wild, basically treating Waymo as guaranteed-to-stop infrastructure which creates a false saftey bubble around the vehicle. Reminds me of how people used to test electric fences by having someone else touch them first. The live radar screen showing humans as moving blobs is def Terminator vibes, but I bet most riders get desensitized to it after like 2 trips.

Expand full comment
Robin D. Wheeler's avatar

St. Louis is slated to get Waymo. We’re expecting many of them to wind up at the bottom of the Mississippi River with the scooters and community bikes.

Expand full comment
Harrison Blackman's avatar

I used to live in Reno. Lime rolled out their scooters. Suddenly, Lime scooters strewn all over the sidewalks. One day, no more Lime scooters. I asked where they went. The answer—they had all been thrown in the Truckee River.

Expand full comment
Robin D. Wheeler's avatar

Same thing happened here, which is why I think Waymo might not be ready for us.

Expand full comment