You wrote, “I have been saying for a while that claims of statistical safety are insufficient to garner public acceptance.” Waymo is working desperately to avoid having to garner public acceptance. In Washington state, a proposed bill would require only that Waymo vehicles conform to (nonexistent) federal safety standards with no local public input, while at the federal level they lobby for a continuation of the status quo, I.e., no federal safety standards for autonomous standards and no state regulation, a clean sweep of regulation from top to bottom. Even their self-published technical-adjacent papers posit no role for public or other expert input on AV operational safety requirements.
What they think their money can buy is an unregulated capitalist utopia where there are no guardrails on exploiting the legal (stealing it’s customers personal data and denying victim’s rights) and physical (severely limited compensation for injuries) vulnerabilities of the public while simultaneously attempting to destroy locally regulated taxis and public transportation businesses while no one is looking. It worked for rideshare businesses. The AV industry has the ride share industry in its sights and desperately wants the same exploitative business success.
Hey, great read as always, it's really important to constanly question these 'unavoidable' claims from AV companies and highlight the human driver standard for accountability.
Reaction time is nothing, prediction is everything.
Thanks, Phil.
You wrote, “I have been saying for a while that claims of statistical safety are insufficient to garner public acceptance.” Waymo is working desperately to avoid having to garner public acceptance. In Washington state, a proposed bill would require only that Waymo vehicles conform to (nonexistent) federal safety standards with no local public input, while at the federal level they lobby for a continuation of the status quo, I.e., no federal safety standards for autonomous standards and no state regulation, a clean sweep of regulation from top to bottom. Even their self-published technical-adjacent papers posit no role for public or other expert input on AV operational safety requirements.
What they think their money can buy is an unregulated capitalist utopia where there are no guardrails on exploiting the legal (stealing it’s customers personal data and denying victim’s rights) and physical (severely limited compensation for injuries) vulnerabilities of the public while simultaneously attempting to destroy locally regulated taxis and public transportation businesses while no one is looking. It worked for rideshare businesses. The AV industry has the ride share industry in its sights and desperately wants the same exploitative business success.
Hey, great read as always, it's really important to constanly question these 'unavoidable' claims from AV companies and highlight the human driver standard for accountability.
Great analysis and discussion on those incidents. Thanks a lot!