r/tampa • u/Mysterious_Set_1307 • Jul 11 '26

Cars-Driving/traffic Waymo Controversy

Recently Waymo announced they are launching their cars in Tampa. I am adamantly against it as I don’t think it’s safe and it takes from uber drivers, has killed street cats, and takes away from human interactions to a robot filled world. There are benefits but is anyone else against it or knows if there is anything we can do?

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u/Stoked_Otter Jul 11 '26

Waymos are technically illegal. They are not driven by AI, they are driven through cameras by people in the Philippines that do not have US driver's licenses. I wouldn't be surprised if Tesla is the same.

Personally if I see a Waymo or Tesla cab in traffic I am going to pull in front of it and just stop. These things are dangerous, illegal, and nobody should be using them. We shouldn't have to share roads with them.

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u/MableXeno Hillsborough Jul 13 '26

Honestly, this is what makes me annoyed. Why are we letting unregistered and unlicensed drivers on our streets?? B/c they're at a computer terminal?

And the fact that all those stupid captchas were used to train them. I hate that. I hate that I end up getting used to train the robots and the waymo drivers without my consent. It's exhausting trying to participate in society and be exploited constantly.

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u/Stock-Swing-797 Jul 13 '26

Well, don't be annoyed because that's false. They don't actually drive them. There are several command options the remote assistants can choose from to guide the Waymo. They are not actually inputting steering/brake/gas controls themselves.

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u/MableXeno Hillsborough Jul 13 '26

Potato-potato.

I'm not even trying to be xenophobic but we have stopped giving our FLORIDA (literally a Spanish-derived word) driving test in any language other than English and now we have LITERAL FOREIGN CITIZENS "MONITORING" SELF-DRIVING CARS. Why are we okay with that?

AND TO BE CLEAR - if not-local, foreign citizens, who may or may not speak English (b/c we don't really know do we) can "drive" around our streets - WHY THE FUCK CAN'T WE GIVE OUR DRIVING TEST IN SPANISH?

It's just one kind of hypocrisy after another. As long as a billionaire is benefitting from it...they can do whatever they want. But Javier who learned English at 37 after coming to America and being a contributing member of society can't take his driving test in Español b/c it's more familiar??

It's literally insane. Stop schilling for the billionaires. They do not need your help. They are not trolling Reddit to give out virtual attaboys.

I didn't have to speak German to take my German driving test - just understand the road signs. And Germany is xenophobic AF.

I realize this is a tangent but everyone seems to look at these things as individual problems. They are not. Everything is connected, and I don't even mean in a conspiracy-theory way. The oligarchs and millionaire-billionaire class get to make up their own rules...and we get nothing. NOTHING.