I'm all for making the roads safer. I used to commute on a moped in Chicago. I'm convinced that the only reason I wasn't killed is because it was an old two-stroke. You might not be able to see me in your giant truck, but you will hear what sounds like an old weedwhacker running full-throttle 6 feet from your rear quarter panel.

Despite the incredible racket I made, I still got into half a dozen near-accidents. I'm surprised it didn't happen more often. You see a lot on a moped, and what I saw was tons of people on their phone, scrolling their way through traffic. Insanity.

This article mostly builds its argument on data sourced directly from Waymo. That's not an unbiased source. I'm not accusing Waymo of anything, but if you're going to argue that autonomous cars are the solution to all the woes of the road, you need a better foundation than that.

To what extent is Waymo's data affected by people's responses to their presence? If I see a weird little car with a bunch of cameras and stuff strapped to the roof, I'm covering the brake and giving that thing a wide berth. Y'know, like what you're supposed to do when you see something weird on the road. Then again, I don't live in the Bay (yet), so maybe drivers have gotten used to them there.

Non-paywalled gift article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/opinion/self-driving-cars...

> Don't Fear Self-Driving Cars. They Save Lives.

Regards, Waymo. Do they ?