Comment by bsimpson

I think caution is good here. We all saw what reckless admin + Uber did before they shut it down for good.

The permit gets them into the process for eventually deploying without safety drivers. That includes safety plans, emergency responder plans and training, and periodic reporting.

They could just drive cars around like Tesla, but that wouldn't put them on a path to a fully autonomous service.

> already fully automated in SF

I don't thin it's fair to say they are fully automated. There's a large remote operations team for remote assistance to help them get out of tricky situations. The cars can be nudged to perform certain actions.

New York is a long way behind California in regulating autonomous vehicles. Fully driverless vehicles are also illegal there and it will require legislation for Waymo to deploy in the state.

It's not insane for cities to permit autonomous vehicle technology. They permit almost every other type of heavy machinery. Even manually driven cars are permitted! (Driver's license test, registration fees, etc.)

There's gonna be people driving them? What's the point then?

You sound like a junior admin. "Why do we need to keep testing? It works in the SF office?"

Because they are completely different environments.