New York Drops Plan To Legalize Robotaxis Outside NYC (theverge.com) 25
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has dropped a proposal that would have allowed limited commercial robotaxi deployments outside New York City, citing a lack of support among state legislators. "The move is a blow to Waymo and other robotaxi companies who saw New York, and especially New York City, as a potential goldmine," reports The Verge. From the report: The plan, which was introduced by Hochul as part of the state's budget proposal last month, would have allowed limited robotaxi deployment in cities other than the Big Apple -- while leaving whether New York City would get autonomous vehicles up to the mayor and the City Council. But now that plan is DOA, as support in the legislature never materialized. "Based on conversations with stakeholders, including in the legislature, it was clear that the support was not there to advance this proposal," Sean Butler, a Hochul spokesperson, said in a statement. "While we are disappointed by the Governor's decision, we're committed to bringing our service to New York and will work with the State Legislature to advance this issue," Waymo spokesperson Ethan Teicher said in a statement. "The path forward requires a collaborative approach that prioritizes transparency and public safety."
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Tire particulates? You've *got* to be shitting me.
Four tires weigh on the order of 100lbs (40kg). One tank of gas weighs over 100 lbs. Now, how many tanks a week do you burn? How many a YEAR?
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I'm surprised the USA has last as long as it has with a significant proportion of the population apparently being this stupid.
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Racism and bigotry used to happen in whispers and behind closed doors. Now the mask is fully off and people are free to be as shitty as they please.
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"No reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons" -- Ronald Reagan, 1967
“The right of the citizen to keep and bear arms must not be infringed if liberty in America is to survive.” -- Ronald Reagan, 1968
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Pretty sure that first quote was directly related to the wrong sort of folks, i.e. Black Panthers, openly carrying firearms in public. I haven't found a concrete source for the second in 1968 (got one?), but it seems to fit better with his later attitudes on the topic.
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Nonsense. You're saying that disagreeing with the actions of Israel is the equivalent of hating jews?
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Fuck Nazis.
https://x.com/MaxE2review/status/2024455905568260225
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We just found out they are not robo taxis (Score:1, Troll)
For my money the moment we found that out the entire fleet should have been grounded but money talks
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They're remote control cars.
I didn't think it was a secret that self-driving cars sometimes, or maybe even often, need human assistance. The name of the game if you're operating the service is to make a sound trade off between compute power and human labor.
As to where the drivers are, that's also a decision trading off network latency, labor costs, site reliability, hours of operation, and driver skill. It's not at all obvious to me where you'd find the right set of remote operators.
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Went under oath waymo admitted they were in the Philippines.
Waymos are not "remote control cars." The human operators you reference can't control the cars directly. They "give advice" in anomalous situations, such as unusual obstructions.
The move is a blow to New Yorkers (Score:2)
"The move is a blow to Waymo and other robotaxi companies who saw New York, and especially New York City, as a potential goldmine."
TFA is missing a major point. The biggest blow is to New Yorkers. It's a potential gold mine because there are millions of registered voters who might prefer a robotaxi to the existing alternatives. Just sayin' Kathy.
Note the "might". We don't know for sure and we won't until someone tries it. Given how popular robotaxis are everywhere else they've been rolled out, I don't think that's a huge question. But this argument hasn't stopped hostility to ride or house sharing either so I doubt it will now.
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Really? And how many jobs do you want to eliminate? I see a story yesterday or today about how hard it is to find low-wage jobs. YOU WANT TO GET RID OF ALL OF THEM, so the rest of us can stand in the street around burn barrels, begging for change.
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Really? And how many jobs do you want to eliminate?
I don't particularly want to eliminate jobs, except to convert them into higher wage jobs.
Anyway, I don't live in New York so it's not my decision to make. New Yorkers ought to be given the chance to decide: would they prefer to hire human drivers or not? Given their safety record (better than humans), I can't think of any compelling reason to not allow them.
Let me put it this way: you and I generally have the same choice: do we use a self-checkout lane or ordering kiosk, or do we go to a staffed lane or or
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Higher-wage jobs? Well, where are they? What sector?
And under no circumstances will I get into a self-driving cab. That's taking money out of someone's pocket, and putting it into the ultrawealthy.
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Higher-wage jobs? Well, where are they? What sector?
Beats me. That was a general statement of principle. In this case, though, perhaps a taxi driver gets a job remotely operating 10 robotaxies.
That's one thing to keep in mind. This came up when ride sharing was just starting. People noticed that if you were in lower Manhattan, taxies were easy(ish) to find. Not so much if you lived in the Bronx or Queens. Uber and Lyft, in comparison, expanded the range of ride services to serve the outer boroughs. So it wasn't as if the only thing they did was put existing
carts (Score:2)
The best solution for NYC is ox-drawn carts.