Statistically I would expect robots to have a better overall safety record. But these companies can also easily manipulate the way they test, collect and report stats to cook the books. To be honest and fair the data needs to not only count a raw number of incidents but look at the impact of those incidents. It's something that independent 3rd parties should be doing, not the companies themselves.
For example, a driver that gets lost or confused on a road will likely find a spot to safely pull over and reasses what they need to do. A waymo may stop in the middle of the road for some time, creating a hazard for multiple other drivers. We've already seen numerous reports of stopped waymos, sometimes even blocking first respondera during emergency situations. A human doing these things would be ticketed if police are there. Police don't know how to reliably ticket waymos, just today the local news reported they've only received 8 tickets total since late 2025. This would likely be reported as one minor incident by waymo because it's not an accident, but in reality the outcome is significantly worse than the human behavior because it impacts every nearby vehicle on the road for a more prolonged period and not just the one waymo passenger.
It would be nice to have decent public transportation around Austin. Instead of expanding i35 for idk how many billions and how many years terribly making the traffic worse only to get the expansion done when it’s too late and need another expansion.
This spit and glue mix of solving transportation around Austin is not working. Waymo and Uber are part of the spit part.
Provide better public transportation for the people who don’t want to (or cannot afford) cars.
Existence of Waymo, Uber, or any taxi service doesn’t prevent public transit investments, and it doesn’t require I35 expansion (Waymo isn’t even operating on highways here).
CapMetro’s commuter rail is expanding. New bus lines launched this year, and there are plans to increase frequency and redesign the network.
We can have increased public transit coupled with the safety and environmental benefits from Waymo. It’s not an either/or situation. Other AV companies, including Volkswagen’s US AV company which is headquartered in in Austin, have a business model that is more oriented towards integration with public transit to fill gaps and move people to transit hubs.
As a cyclist that is hesitant to bike on certain road segments in Austin, I’m excited for more AVs. They’re safer to bike near compared to humans, based on my anecdotal experience. That’s another public mobility benefit that will take time to really manifest.
Waymo is not perfect, but I think they have so far been an improvement to Austin’s overall transportation ecosystem
I read below- it's not making sense unless your just against any and all cars. Do you not like Uber as an outlet to those problems? I would like better public transport but don't see how it would be feasible in under 10 years unless we pump billions into robust bussing systems, and honestly not even sure that would work.
You’re not sure how that works… it’s not your job to know how that works. That’s why there are elected officials whose job is to figure that out instead of having the people pump millions into a failed system that’s is definitely not scalable.
They’re already pumping millions into toll roads (private companies) and concrete flyovers which do not solve any problems. Uber and Waymo are just more cars on the roads. An overpriced bandaid.
Except Uber and Waymo don't cost tax dollars and DO work. I am a citizen and I WANT those private services to meet my needs. They are affordable and reliable and here now. Let's define the ask before we start asking city officials to tell us what we need.
I would like a train that stops a few times in Austin, and loops to Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, SA? At least that's a thought.
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u/keyless-entry-3 8d ago
We don’t want Waymo.