The US Approach to Robotaxis Is Far Too Cautious
When it comes to autonomous vehicles, America requires a regulatory posture that errs on the side of innovation as a national priority, not a series of city-by-city special interest fights.
Look ma, no hands!
Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images
I took my first ride in a driverless car last week courtesy of Waymo, Google’s autonomous taxi service, which has received regulatory permission to test in the District of Columbia. The cars are mostly plying the streets for training and validation purposes, but Waymo invited a few journalists to check out the cars. Mine had a human supervisor in the driver’s seat (as required by their current regulatory status in DC) but he never touched the wheel.
Instead, the car whisked me seamlessly from Google’s office near Georgetown Law School down New Jersey Avenue, through Lower Senate Park, before turning north onto First Street and successfully executing the nightmarish left turn into the traffic circle outside of Union Station and then back to the office. In all, the ride last about 15 minutes. I can’t say how well the software’s abilities generalize to other routes, but the driving was completely flawless across a range of scenarios — including the unexpected arrival of some fire trucks at one point — that appeared to me to pose a high degree of difficulty.