No Driver, No Problem?
Waymo’s here, the subway still sucks, and Manhattan’s turning into a gated community without a gate.
So...Waymo’s coming to NYC.
I first saw their driverless cars all over San Francisco in fall 2023 while playing the out-of-town run of Soul Train. It looked like science fiction come to life. Some folks I talked to said the rides were very nice. I wonder if Waymo will be less expensive than Uber or Lyft. Traveling ten blocks in either of those services now costs more than a ticket to see Beyoncé's "Cowboy Carter" tour.
I’ll gladly hop in a Waymo if it’s cheaper and they cover that ridiculous “congestion relief zone” fee. Hopefully, this finally exposes the scam for what it is; a cash grab disguised as climate policy. It was never about easing traffic; it was always about bailing out the MTA after decades of waste. Congestion hasn’t improved at all, and that $9 tax to drive below 60th Street? It’s already set to go up—$12, then $15. It’s in the plan.
Meanwhile, the streets are still clogged with Ubers, Lyfts, trucks, e-bikes zipping by with packages for people who won’t walk into a store, private cars, luxury SUVs hauling the rich around. And now driverless cars too? Nice work, Andrew Hochul.
Maybe one day, New Yorkers will get what other cities already have: a real upgrade to the subway and maybe even driverless trains that actually work.
Will you be 'hailing' an autonomous vehicle if you live in NYC...or anywhere else?
READ: Robotaxi company campaigns for New York expansion
Deep Cuts is where I think out loud about the intersections of culture, history, music, politics, and power. If this made you think, whether you agree or not, share it, forward it, or subscribe for more.
What do I think? I'll tell you what I don't mind confessing to. And this is that never in my life had I allowed myself to take such perverse pleasure in rank hooliganism, than while I watched, on live local-affiliate TV, those stupid gimmicks being burned to the ground in LA.
That it so obviously had nothing whatsoever to do with any 'protests', and that it re-defined for the ages the meaning of the term 'mercenaries' as riot-actors providing in real time a false premise for a party-state personality cult to send in the Marines having already intended to do so regardless, made the arson itself, and the thousands of semi-indifferent and certainly not rioting bystanders too busy pointing their phones at the flames to be much concerned with bringing down a republic, and that presidency itself, look more clearly than ever like what they all are: either entertainers, and those in need of entertainment for lack of anything else to do, is in its perverse and tragic way the funniest practical joke I ever encountered.