Driverless Vehicles - Who Needs Them? - Streetsblog New York City

"One size does not fit all.Even if Waymo's claim that its driverless cabs are involved in 80-percent fewer crashes per mile traveled is true, we still must take all necessary steps to encourage the use of AVs. Given the hundreds of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries annually in New York City, driverless cars have the potential to provide a huge safety dividend with far-reaching effects on hospitals, health, and individual finances - perhaps as much as $10 billion annually."

"It's likely that the safety improvements from AVs will surpass all of the reductions made over the 11 years of Vision Zero, even if the crash-reduction figures are somewhat lower than Big Tech promises. So autonomous vehicles are a moral imperative, right? That means we shouldn't stand in the way of progress, right? Well... The tech companies want to launch their AVs as taxis. Thousands of jobs and families are at risk of unemployment, insolvency, and even homelessness."

Autonomous vehicles promise substantial safety gains, with driverless cabs reportedly producing far fewer crashes and potentially saving New York City up to $10 billion annually in reduced deaths, injuries, and related costs. Those safety improvements could exceed decades of incremental Vision Zero progress. Widespread deployment as on-demand taxis enables mass adoption without costly sales channels, but could displace thousands of drivers, risking unemployment, insolvency, and homelessness. Mitigation will require creation of alternative jobs and a robust public process to determine the extent to which technology firms share responsibility. Urban travel patterns may not shrink because taxis circulate continuously.

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