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Waymo granted permit to begin testing in New York City

(www.cnbc.com)
597 points achristmascarl | 7 comments | 22 Aug 25 17:02 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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meagher ◴[22 Aug 25 18:48 UTC] No.44988282[source]▶
This is great long term for having cars that follow traffic laws since human drivers in NYC are awful (kill/injure pedestrians, bikers, and other street users all the time).

Not so great for getting cars out of NYC and pedestrianizing more of the city/moving towards more “low traffic neighborhoods” as I imagine Waymo and other similar companies are going to fight against these efforts.

Edit: Lots of people talking about human drivers taking advantage of self-driving cars being more cautious/timid. Good news is that once you have enough self-driving cars on the road, it probably slows down/calms other traffic (see related research on speed governors).

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Workaccount2 ◴[22 Aug 25 18:51 UTC] No.44988337[source]▶
Believe it or not, NYC is actually the safest city in the country for pedestrians and bicyclists.[1]

[1]https://www.wagnerreese.com/most-dangerous-cities-cyclists-p...

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1. meagher ◴[22 Aug 25 18:54 UTC] No.44988366[source]▶
I’d believe it, but the fact that any pedestrians/bikers are killed/injured by cars in NYC is unacceptable.
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2. guywithahat ◴[22 Aug 25 19:40 UTC] No.44988929[source]▶
I mean if we required a license to own a bike in NYC we could see a significant reduction in injuries/deaths, same for pedestrians. Cars are already heavily regulated and likely aren't the underlying issue.

There are many ways to interpret data, but one often comes to the conclusion that pedestrians and bikers are the root cause of most accidents.

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3. Dylan16807 ◴[22 Aug 25 19:42 UTC] No.44988954[source]▶
Do you mean that in the sense of "anyone getting killed is unacceptable" or the sense of "we need complete separation between cars and pedestrians/bikers, somehow"?
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4. paulgb ◴[22 Aug 25 20:10 UTC] No.44989217[source]▶
Cars are only “heavily regulated” in the sense that you pass a test once when you are a teenager and then never have to pass a test again, just pay a nominal fee to renew your license.

I am curious what data you are looking at that gives you the impression pedestrians and bikers are the root cause of most accidents. As a frequent pedestrian / biker here, I see a car doing something unhinged about every mile I walk. On Wednesday I almost got hit by a car flying the wrong way down a one-way street and then running a red.

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5. bryanlarsen ◴[22 Aug 25 20:10 UTC] No.44989226[source]▶
The rule of thumb for almost completely eliminating pedestrian fatalities is complete separation or a 20mph speed limit. A 20mph speed limit is far more feasible for the 5 boroughs than most other American cities.
6. woodruffw ◴[22 Aug 25 20:12 UTC] No.44989244[source]▶
I think there's a third more charitable reading: that current injury and fatality rates are still too high, even if they compare favorably to the rest of the US's rates. It's unrealistic to have no traffic injuries ever; this doesn't imply that NYC can't do better.
7. guywithahat ◴[23 Aug 25 17:12 UTC] No.44997414{3}[source]▶
Well if this is the standard we’re going for

> the fact that any pedestrians/bikers are killed/injured by cars in NYC is unacceptable.

Then the next step is regulating bikes and pedestrians. I think most studies which are willing to assign blame to bikes find they’re usually at fault or visibility is an issue, both of which come down to the bike. To approach no deaths, we need licenses, lights, increased safety protection, and training. If we’re fine with NYC just being one of the safest cities for bikers and pedestrians, then maybe we don’t have to worry about that