New York's Traffic Nightmare: Can Driverless Cars Help or Hurt?

New York City is thinking about letting driverless cars, like those from Waymo, hit the streets. Waymo, which is owned by Google's parent company, Alphabet, has already started testing its electric Jaguars in the city. But there's a catch: a person has to be in the driver's seat because of state laws. Waymo's cars are already cruising around in places like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin, Texas. So, why not New York? Well, those cities are different. They don't rely as much on public transportation. For example, in San Francisco, only about 22% of people used public transit to get to work in 2023. In Austin, it was even lower, under 2%. That means if a Waymo car convinces someone to ditch their own vehicle, an Uber, or a taxi, it's not adding to the traffic problem. But New York is a whole different story. Nearly half of the workers in the city, 48%, depend on public transportation. If that number dropped, the streets would be in chaos. There's just no room for more cars. So, while driverless cars might seem like a cool, futuristic idea, New York has to think carefully. The city's traffic is already a mess. Adding more cars, even if they're driverless, could make things worse.