The only reason why Waymo was denied access to New York is they haven't given a bribe big enough that the city government requested. That's it. As soon as Waymo gives they bribe they requested they'll be in New York.

Why isn't Google/Waymo building it. Sounds like they are much better equipped for it.

This is putting the cart before the horse. The problem with autonomous vehicles is that there's no standardized third party test suite to validate and certify ahead of time and periodically that the vehicles are capable of behaving correctly in all road conditions even with their sensors degraded as will happen over time.

This kind of validation should be done by the state or a neutral third party like UL in the US before a single vehicle is allowed on public roads.

Without it they're just unleashing multi-ton weapons on the streets with no guarantee they'll perform adequately. The problems with this were evident in SF when the blackout happened and the Waymos clogged up the roadways. If that happens during a real emergency and blocks the roadways it could result in thousands of deaths.

Autonomous vehicles are a bad idea anyway for the reasons in this video[1].

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=040ejWnFkj0