Over here in London, the *big* news is about TfL granting Wayve and Uber private hire licenses to start operating robotaxis. I’ll go over the fine print below, but it’s more mundane than you might think based on headlines and press releases.

So without further ado… the news!

China introduces new AV road rules

Planned to come into effect in July 2027, the new regulations oversee both robotaxis as well as consumer offerings. Manufacturers will have to ensure that autonomous systems can match the safety of human drivers and outline any limitations to buyers.

Kazakhstan greenlights AV trials

The three-year pilot will take place in three cities: Astana, Almaty and Kosshy. Trials will take place on private test tracks, as well as on public roads once there is confidence in the capabilities.

The cheeto puff is killing transit

Everybody’s least favourite president is spending as little money as possible on big transit projects (despite Congress allocating billions for it). “The program illustrates a subtler tactic in how the Trump administration is managing federal funds: not just terminating grants, as it did in droves last year, but quietly declining to give out new ones.”

What do London’s AV trials mean for their iconic black cabs?

This article takes on the labour debate around AVs, speaking with a family based in London where generations have operated black cabs. It also re-introduces The Knowledge, the legendary test all Black Cab drivers must pass to receive their license. “Introduced in 1865, the Knowledge remains one of the world’s toughest professional qualifications. Candidates master the city’s streets through intensive visualization, training so rigorous that studies have shown it can physically reshape the brain.”

What happens when speed cameras get shut down?

In 2025, Ontario banned automated traffic enforcement. Naturally, there is now a surge in speeding drivers. However, we actually knew this would happen because there is so. much. research. about this. Studies have proven that automatic traffic enforcement (aka charging drivers based on data collected from speed cameras) works. In NYC, speed cameras decrease crashes by 14% and cause tickets issued to drop by 75%.

So why did Ontario remove them? Because road safety, something that is objectively bad, has become seen as a political problem. Doug Ford announced in September 2025 that he would ban speed cameras in an effort to “protect taxpayers and drivers and stop them from being gouged.” Big womp.

The more you know!

• Two injured in Atlanta after a Waymo caught fire after being rear-ended by a Jeep. Those injured were inside the Jeep. (Fox.. sorry)

• Nearly a third of Americans owe negative equity on their car payments. Collectively, Americans owe $1.68 trillion in car loans, a 37% increase from 2018 (Jalopnik)

Uber and Wayve granted PHV licenses in London

Over here in London, the *big* news is about TfL granting Wayve and Uber private hire licenses to start operating robotaxis. The fine print? TfL awarded them 15 licenses, which are the same as any Uber driver would need to operate, and all operations require a safety driver to be in the vehicle at all times. From my vantage point, it seems like Wayve + Uber are racing towards a ‘beat Waymo to the punch’ aka ‘first to launch in London’ headline. A Quartz article framed this as a ‘win’ for Wayber (my new nickname for the couple), and I think it’s important to note this isn’t a public procurement where one operator wins, and others lose. This is a standard permitting process any wannabe PHV operator can apply for.

Waymo (so far) is choosing to only apply for robotaxi approvals via a scheme managed by the DfT. When Wayber want to actually operate without a driver, they will need those separate approvals from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency. This approach allows Wayber to get service on the road faster, but with only 15 vehicles, it will be interesting to see how they meet demand / where the vehicles operate across the Capital.

I think this announcement plays no small part in creating a narrative that Uber doesn’t need Waymo to scale robotaxis. Given how the recent split has impacted Uber’s stock price, this is certainly a narrative they will continue promoting.

More coverage from: Politico, Quartz, Uber Press Release, The Guardian

Uber wants you to know they can deliver AVs without Waymo

Per the above… The Observer has a deep dive on Uber’s history and current financial investments in AVs to weave the tale of how diversified Uber’s approach to autonomy is. This week TechCrunch also published an article outlining all of Uber’s AV deals. The language is that of empire-building; wanting to remind everybody that Uber is, in fact, a Goliath.

Oxa invests in AV hub in Dubai

British AV start-up Oxa is opening an AV logistics hub in Dubai that will focus on vehicles that navigate ports, airports, warehouses and more. Oxa will provide its technology (software, fleet management tools, sensors) for industrial vehicles and worksite management systems.

Waymo Co-CEO on why camera-only approach can’t deliver

It’s quite rare we hear from Dmitri Dolgov, Co-CEO of Waymo. But when speaking to founders at a Y Combinator event, he went on to talk about why camera-only sensing (aka Tesla’s bet) falls short. He likens camera-based sensing to mirroring human driving behaviour, and notes LiDAR and other sensors help go above that standard.

China’s WeRide enters Denmark

WeRide is partnering with GreenMobility, a Danish electric ​mobility operator. They plan ​to launch a public robotaxi service in the first half of 2027. WeRide is currently piloting service in Spain and Slovakia, with plans to pilot in France, Belgium and Switzerland.

What happens when your AV ages?

An interesting, engineering-forward article about how AV sensors are coping with the intensity of operating in urban environments. It looks at “how those systems will age under massive compute demands and harsh road conditions, which can vary greatly from one region to the next, and from one user to the next.”

The future of cars

“The reason for the frenzied activity is clear. The ability to get around safely and seamlessly is one of humanity’s greatest challenges and few believe we’ll find a solution in the near future. As urbanisation continues apace, the pressure put on infrastructure in our cities will only grow. Already some swollen metropolises are buckling under that pressure.”

• The weather in London is finally stabilising, which means it’s safe to bring peanut to picnics and spend time outside. It’s been so overwhelmingly hot this summer that she’s mostly been confined to the great indoors.

• This week I went to Leighton House for a games afternoon hosted by friends at Hekayyatna and learned how to play backgammon! I will say I’m not particularly good at backgammon yet, but I look forward to getting better.

• Finally, I’m reading the Taiwan Travelogue right now and loving it. I’m still in the first third of the book, but I find the writing very endearing and comedic. It won the Booker this year! I’m also watching Sterling Point, which is as cheesy as it looks, but it’s also so Canadian in the best, most hilarious way. 20/10 recommend (just get through the first episode, and it gets better).

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah

If you’d like to support my work and this newsletter, please consider becoming a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition or making a donation.

I’m back in London and ready to settle back into my routines. I am deeply missing my morning swims in the sea, but finding ways to infuse a bit of the dolce vita vibes into my life here. I hope wherever you are that the tail end of summer is full of sweet peaches, iced tea, and late nights that drag on for no particular reason.

Fun fact: Substack now allows me to scan my own writing for AI-generated text (lol). Anyways, I hope that as you’re reading this, it feels like it was written by a human putting a lot of heart into the matter. Here’s to being 100% human.

It’s been a very busy week in the world of AVs, so let’s dig in.

London Assembly call for TfL to regulate AV trials

If you’re reading that headline and thinking… wait, TfL aren’t already leading the London AV taxi trial… your confusion is very fair. In what feels like an Olympic-paced sprint, London is getting ready to launch robotaxis with operators wanting to use the city as a showcase for what they can offer European cities. However, the actual reality is that central government (DfT) currently holds the reins. This isn’t so dissimilar to the US, where States control trials that happen in cities; but given many cities don’t like this model due to lack of local oversight, I’m not surprised there are calls for Transport for London to regulate London’s transport…

According to Chairwoman of the London Assembly Transport Committee, Caroline Russell: “The regulation of all of this is being controlled by the government when TfL should have a licensing role in this. We’re all a bit surprised because this is a new technology, but the government has been controlling these trials and giving permission for the trials without TfL having any say.”

Over in the US, cities are fighting for better emergency response protocols

A California Senator (Kevin Mullin) has introduced a bill to standardise AV protocols during emergencies, which has received vocal support from San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie (see press release here). Operators seem keen on the idea too, with a Waymo rep stating that “establishing minimum guidelines would provide the entire industry and public safety community with a consistent framework.”

China resumes robotaxi licensing

China has started issuing robotaxi permits again after a suspension in April, when Baidu’s robotaxi fleet shut down suddenly in Wuhan, leaving passengers stranded. China is gradually issuing licenses in select cities. Still today, neither Baidu nor the government has publicly disclosed details of what caused Wuhan’s robotaxi outage.

America wants to have ‘Freedom Cars’

Big wooof. US Transport Secretary and Reality TV Star Sean Duffy wants to preserve the ability for Americans to buy ‘Freedom Cars’, aka cars with zero technology. Duffy put forward a law that would prohibit local or state governments from “requiring automakers to equip vehicles with automated driving systems or the capability to transmit data wirelessly”. What this means in reality is that cars could continue to be made without proven safety interventions so that people can still go on joyrides, at the cost of everybody else’s safety.

A wee Tesla corner

• Ex-Tesla manager called their robotaxi trial ‘rolling hazards on public streets’ and details how team behind the product tried to warn leadership (The Independent)

• A professor in Queensland, Australia used a FSD Tesla for 100 days and documented all of the mistakes the vehicle kept making (University of Queensland)

• Musk says Tesla’s large freight vehicles are less than a year away… which means we will see them maybe (maybe) by the end of the decade? (Electrek)

A wee Waymo corner

• Waymo announces they will go their own way, and plan to operate without Uber in Austin and Atlanta once those contracts end in 2028. With each AV break-up announcement made, Uber’s stock drops (Bloomberg)

• Waymo vehicles are now back on (some) US highways after two months of refinement after the cars kept struggling to navigate construction sites (TechCrunch)

• Waymo has been ordered to stop charging overnight at Santa Monica facility over noise complaints (LA Times)

• Since launching service in 2024, Waymo has accumulated $9,325 in parking tickets in Austin, Texas (the vast majority of which Waymo has paid) (WSJ)

Lyft and Baidu start testing AVs in London

One thing the robotaxi industry does well is put out press releases for every. single. milestone. A vehicle coming off a container ship? Check. A vehicle being driven with a safety driver? Check. An announcement that service will actually start in a year? Check. The list goes on. Which is to say this is a bit of a nothing-burger of an update, but an update nonetheless.

The more you know:

• Zoox’s toaster model (sans steering wheel or pedals) has been approved to accept commercial rides; the first of the toaster models to achieve this milestone (WaPo). They received approval for 5,000 of these models to hit city streets (Bloomberg).

• Aurora launches their second-generation autonomous freight truck (Aurora)

• Ford partners with Apple for mapping in new autonomous driving systems (NYTs)

The Institute For Progress publishes Transit Abundance Playbook

There are multiple layers to this playbook, and it's well worth digging into. “The United States once led the world in transit construction. Today, we lead in transit construction costs. This playbook offers policy solutions so the American public can stop paying more for less.”

Waymo releases latest safety data

A new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety finds that Waymo vehicles are involved in 68% fewer crashes than human drivers. The Institute had a very balanced view on the findings, stating that: “The results show that, on a limited scale, these driverless cars are safer than human drivers — who can be impaired or drowsy or suffer lapses in attention. However, the present data collection system isn’t good enough to allow continuous monitoring of a large-scale expansion.”

• This time last week I was biking around Favignana, swimming in some of the most beautiful waters my eyes have ever seen. Favignana is now famous for being where some of the Odyssey was filmed, but will forever be famous in my heart for the sheer blueness of the ocean. I saw a trumpet fish for the first time with my own goggles and was overwhelmed by their cuteness.

• Back in London, I’ve been cuddling with Peanut (she remembers me), catching up with friends, and taking in the best of culture. I saw Hole! this week at Soho Theatre, and it is heading to the Edinburgh Fringe next, so if you find yourself in that corner of the world, I highly recommend it. I also saw The Invite this week, and it was fantastic (a comedy full, full of heart).

• And last but not least, in my attempt to keep some of my french fluency, I hit a 500 day streak on duolingo :)

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah

If you’d like to support my work and this newsletter, please consider becoming a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition or making a donation.

I am in Italy until tomorrow and have spent much of the past week between a cycle of morning swims, cafe cremas, working, long lunches, evening swims, late dinners, and midnight gelato. It’s been a literal treat, but I’m excited to be back in London soon and return to my usual content (Peanut pictures). For now, here’s the news.

USDOT removes bike lanes and speed cameras from list of proven safety measures

This one feels like a gut punch. Advocates have spent decades fighting for the opportunity to travel without getting killed or seriously injured. We’ve done study upon study to show what works and offer real empirical data to cities to bolster their policy decisions, only for USDOT to needlessly politicise transport safety. Is the goal not for people to live?

This is especially sickening after two public servants working towards making roads safer died while cycling this summer. Chicago’s Riley O’Neil was killed when cycling in a paint-only bike lane, and a driver doored him (Streetsblog), while Boston’s Louisa Gag was murdered by the driver of a large truck at an intersection (WBUR). Both deaths highly preventable with the right infrastructure. My heart is heavy with their loss.

Why do AVs keep blocking bike lanes?

The Driverless Digest (a spin-off from the Rideshare Guy) has a piece with David Zipper about why AVs keep parking in bike lanes and what cities and AV companies can do about it. As a former board member of the SF Bike Coalition, it is also great to see local advocates speaking up on these issues and pushing for better outcomes.

DC’s proposed AV bill silent on accessibility

The only disability provision in DC’s proposed AV bill is for an app. However, it is completely silent on whether the vehicles can actually accommodate people with disabilities. There is no mention of users who rely on wheelchairs or accessible vehicles.

Last week, advocates commented on the proposed bill. You can listen to commentary from local advocate (and AFTR reader Kelly!) about why accessibility needs to be at the forefront of AV development here around the 3-hour mark. Kelly has also shared a full write-up of their testimony here. I found their point about how exhausting it is to advocate for base-level services very poignant: “Ongoing, persistent discrimination like this is exhausting to endure and many people may not have the time, energy, and resources to complain each time they experience it. I know people who complained, received no response, and ultimately gave up on trying to receive accessible on-demand transportation service.”

SF Mayor wants stricter regulations for AVs

Mayor Daniel Lurie (Heir to the Levi’s fortune for those unfamiliar! And a very pro-tech Mayor) wrote to California Transportation Secretary Toks Omishakin asking for better regulations before more AVs are deployed in San Francisco. He is asking for companies to prove that they can handle extraordinary conditions. TechCrunch also has a good piece on the Mayor’s letter. My read is that the Mayor is asking for quite necessary data for cities to have trust in their partners during this emergent period.

On a related note, Waymo did preemptively pause service ahead of a power outage in San Francisco in an effort to not have vehicles shut down (SF Standard). The service was paused for about an hour while the company made sure the conditions would allow vehicles to keep operating, business as usual.

How AVs are impacting Austin’s emergency services

According to public data, AVs have ‘either blocked traffic or ignored the direction of Austin police in 25% of reported incidents from July 2023 to June 2026’. Interestingly enough, safety concerns are the most commonly made complaint in the city’s database. What’s also interesting about Austin is that AVs are regulated at a State level (similar to Florida, California), and in 2017 Texas stripped cities of authority over service that takes place on their own streets. New rules taking effect this month will give the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles the power to suspend permits for autonomous vehicle companies.

Zoox recalls fleet over heavy smoke

We (society) are having many ‘learning moments’ when it comes to what challenges AVs struggle with. Earlier this year we saw flooding. Now we’re seeing vehicles struggle with heavy smoke. Last week, Zoox issued an over-the-air recall to its 105-vehicle fleet after a vehicle drove directly into heavy smoke near a fire scene that emergency workers were responding to. This ties into other more recent questions about how AVs are increasing the burden on emergency support services, and how companies can adapt their operating procedures to minimise impact on essential services. See here for

Two cars crash into a Waymo vehicle in London

A Waymo, operating with a human driver around 2am, got the short end of the stick this week when a speeding car crashed into it while the vehicle was changing lanes. According to Waymo, ‘While the test driver was changing lanes, the Waymo vehicle was approached from behind by another vehicle travelling at 93 mph in a 50 mph zone. That vehicle swerved into an adjacent lane, collided with another vehicle and then made contact with the Waymo vehicle.’ Four people were injured in the collision.

As a reminder, vehicle speed is the single most important factor during collisions. Almost 60% of all road fatalities in the UK are linked to speed. The RAC has a campaign on now to implement in-vehicle infrastructure that would curtail a driver’s ability to speed.

MOIA launches passenger service in Hamburg

Preregistered customers can now hire one of five MOIA vehicles (retrofitted ID.Buzz vehicles) in Hamburg. For now, each car will continue to have a safety monitor on hand. MOIA is interested in testing a shared model of autonomy, meaning that passengers travelling in the same direction may share a vehicle, while pickups and drop-offs will take place at designated virtual stops. I’m really excited to see this in practice (and how such models can help fill existing transit gaps).

CoMoUK: Driverless shouldn’t be directionless

“In the absence of a clear and holistic vision of the role that AVs will play in the future UK transport network, there is a spectrum of pathways and potential outcomes. AVs could well emerge as a force of positive change, resulting in a sustainable and accessible transport option that works alongside other modes. Alternatively, we could end up with an overwhelmingly operator-led introduction of AVs that prioritises use cases with the greatest commercial viability, replaces trips that would have been made by active means, and reinforces car-dependent behaviours. The reality will likely be somewhere in the middle of this spectrum.”

The impact of AVs in NYC

“However, a core question remains unanswered: how might robotaxis impact our streetscape in comparison to the professional for-hire vehicle drivers of taxis, Ubers, and Lyfts? In this report, we explore this question through the lenses of safety, vehicle miles travelled, and parking. Waymo has the most prolific robotaxi fleet in the United States, and required public reporting in California gives us a unique look into their operations, which is why we choose to analyze Waymo data in this report.”

How Angelenos use AVs and the future of work

“The demographic profile of autonomous ride-hailing users closely resembles that of Uber and Lyft users. Controlling for other key demographic factors, younger Angelenos (ages 18–39) were significantly more likely than other age groups to report using an autonomous ride-hailing service in the last year. Those with a bachelor’s degree or higher were also more likely to do so, even after accounting for household income. Notably, both non-Hispanic White and non-Hispanic Black Angelenos were more likely than other racial or ethnic groups to use an autonomous service.”

Full-time

• [London, UK - TfL] Technical Strategy Lead

• [Various Cities, US - Waymo] Product Partnership Manager - Transit and Demand Integrations

  • Seems like a very important role that will have a huge impact on local transit systems, requires a transit-loving mind to work with local agencies!

• I got to explore more of Italy this week with friends, including Erice, a hilltop commune built of stone that overlooks the surrounding sea and mountainous landscape of the region. It is filled with small winding streets that cars could never pass through, remarkably lush gardens given the climate, castle-esque buildings that are hundreds of years old and a style of architecture that feels impossible to replicate. The city also has a cable car connecting it to Trapani below, which is obviously cute as far as I’m concerned.

• We watched Spain win the World Cup in a beachside bar while eating tiramisu and gelato. I am so enchanted by Lamine Yamal and the energy from the Spanish players. This is truly the year of sport, and I keep getting swept up in it, but even I have to admit it’s kind of fun? Something about cheering other people on is actually just nice for the soul, right?

• This Atlantic piece on the ‘end of reading’ is a long read, but I found it very worthwhile. It touches on the impact of social media and AI on our attention spans. About how students at Harvard find professors assigning long texts to be ‘gatekeeping’ information when AI summaries will do. I learned that an American is more likely to place a bet than read a book this year. All the more reason to pick up a book :)

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah

If you’d like to support my work and this newsletter, please consider becoming a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition or making a donation.

Writing to you from a patio table in Cornino, Italy, with a view of Monte Cofano and the ocean. I’m here with friends for our annual Italian summer outing to swim with the fish, eat dinner at 10pm, embody our most ‘call me by your name’ selves, and consume as much gelato as humanly possible. Lots of reflections in bits + bops below, but for now, here’s the news ❤️

NHTSA prepares guidelines for AVs

With the intent of having guidelines finalised before the end of Trump’s presidential term (which is somehow not even halfway over). NHTSA will seek public comment to develop these guidelines and identify ‘behavioural competencies’ that vehicles must demonstrate.

Does Washington, DC want AVs?

Washington DC has been an interesting case study in regulating AVs. Local councillors have taken a slow and steady approach when considering whether they will welcome robotaxis to their streets. This week, the city council held a hearing on a bill that would allow the commercial deployment of AVs. I quite like this quote from the councillor who introduced the bill: “If I’ve learned anything in the last several months, it’s that very few people are ambivalent about autonomous vehicles.”

In addition, the bill puts a high price tag on AV deployment: “The bill would also charge a $1 million application fee for an initial commercial autonomous vehicle permit, plus an additional $5 million operational permit fee, and it would implement a 15-cent-per-mile tax as a way to discourage robotaxis from clogging up D.C. streets while they wait for rides.” Axios has a really good rundown of the bill itself.

What does a US city without traffic fatalities look like?

Things that inspire me: seeing cities that take the straightforward and easy steps to protect all road users from preventable death. I didn’t know until today that Somerville, Mass. (a suburb of Boston) had not seen any road deaths in three years. The infrastructure introduced? More speed bumps, more visible crosswalks, better bike lanes and new bus stops. Sometimes it really is that simple.

SFMTA criticises AV event response for July 4th

According to new reports, the AVs weren’t aware of the known traffic closures, which then worsened existing gridlock in the city on the busy holiday. The batteries in many vehicles died, which led to vehicles needing to be towed. The previous SFMTA director, Jeff Tumlin, shared that the city itself has no direct power over operating geofences for AV services, and it is up to the companies to ensure the vehicles are prepared for major events.

London’s first autonomous bus gets a trial run!

The vehicles have been trialled on private land (Olympic Park, Greenwich Peninsula) for the past few years, but local reporters were welcomed abroad in SW London to traverse public roads in real conditions, alongside all other road users. London Centric interviews a local architect who wants to see this model deployed in specific neighbourhood conditions. FWIW, TfL don’t seem keen on autonomous bus proposals at this time.

Hong Kong continues to progress AV testing

As of June, Hong Kong has issued seven pilot licenses involving 63 autonomous vehicles for testing. The city is working with stakeholders to facilitate licensing arrangements for commercial autonomous vehicles and draw up a long-term development roadmap.

Why Uber (and other AV companies) want to slow the roll of their deployment

I have heard off the record from various friends in the AV space that most companies are okay with cities taking a slower approach to regulating AVs because it will give them more time to catch up to Waymo. And if you look at Uber’s approach, it is essentially that. The metaphor that comes to mind is that Uber is shooting itself and every other company in the foot.

On the one hand, Uber has entered into agreements with 20+ companies to pursue robotaxi services. On the other hand, the company is sending lobbyists to promote legislative language that would mandate that human drivers are required for TNC licenses. For example, in New Jersey, Uber’s lobbyists put forward language that would require any platform offering AV ride-hailing services to have human drivers serve 85% of its rides for at least three years. See more coverage from TechCrunch.

The updates on the fatal Tesla crash in Texas keep getting worse

First things first, last week, I shared this article about the Tesla driver who drove into a woman’s home in Texas, killing her. Originally, my headline read that the driver had been found guilty, but in fact, they had only been charged. The online version of the newsletter has been updated to correct this.

This week, we learned that the driver ‘pressed the accelerator pedal to 100%’, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which overrides the FSD system. Moreover, the driver allegedly told authorities that he passed out behind the wheel, which he thought was okay because he was using Tesla’s driver assistance system. The family involved has sued the driver and Tesla for negligence. See more from Fortune.

In other Tesla news, they’ve launched a robotaxi service in Miami (Globe and Mail). Miami marks the fourth city, and the second State the company operates robotaxi service in.

The long-range effects of highways on rural America

“This paper estimates how Interstate highway construction affected the adult outcomes of individuals born into rural America using longitudinally linked microdata. Using Social Security records linked to Census data for cohorts born 1935–1955, we find that highways benefited those born into rural America, increasing income by 4.4% ($1960), reducing unemployment by 3%, and raising college completion by 8%. Highways also shifted the industrial composition of rural Americans from agriculture to services and enabled strategic out-migration to urban areas and along highways.”

Are robotaxis turning humans into menaces?

“With no human behind the wheel, riders feel like they have no social contract to follow. As a result, they’re turning robotaxis into trash cans, leaving behind spilled drinks, food scraps, and in some cases, bodily fluids like vomit for the next unlucky sap.” See LA Times on passengers falling asleep in vehicles, and 911 needing to be called.

• I’ve been in Sicily since Sunday and, as with most parts of Italy, fell in love in five seconds flat. A friend of a friend grew up on the island and has been guiding us to the cutest beaches and invited us to dinner in Palermo ahead of the Feast of Saint Rosalia. I learned this week that Rosalia is a big deal, as she saved Palermo from the plague in 1624. Each year, the city throws a massive celebration to honour her. A figure of her passes through the city, and as she winds her way down Palermo’s small streets, crowds silently ask her for a miracle to take place in the next year of their life.

• There are so many traffic free zones across the major cities on the Island. We’ve ventured to Marsala and Palermo quite a bit, and I keep taking pictures of the small, narrow streets and the wide boulevards that are closed to vehicles. All streets are for people if you let them be.

• When I’m here, I’m fairly relentless about wanting to swim every morning (which is where I’m headed after finishing this edition!). It’s the nicest routine, and I have a little crema cafe after which is kind of like a coffee ice cream slushie? A bit like an Ice Cap from Tim Hortons for the Canadians reading. I don’t drink coffee ever (have hand over heart never ordered one), except for my morning ice cream coffees in Italy 😂

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah

If you’d like to support my work and this newsletter, please consider becoming a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition or making a donation.

It is hot hot hot in the UK this week, in the way that makes you want to hide indoors. My flat is thankfully very cool as it doesn’t get much direct sun (something I’m grateful for in peak summer months). I’m currently sitting here with peanut, who is enjoying some dog ice cream and iced water like the spoiled pup she is.

Event highlight: Autonomous Vehicles and Parking Reform

Before we get started, the good folks over at SUMC are hosting a webinar on AV parking reform next week. Highly recommend registering! It features:

• ​Dr. Andrew Miller, mobility expert and co-author of The End of Driving

• ​Dr. Miriam Pinski, director of the Shared-Use Mobility Center at UCLA

• ​Dr. Rachel Weinberger, Peter W. Herman Chair for Transportation at the Regional Plan Association

Alright, let’s dive into some news, shall we! The entire research section this week is full of incredible findings, so be sure not to skip ‘em.

NHTSA raises alarm on AVs and emergency responses

The head of the NHTSA has come out and said AVs driving into emergency scenes, blocking ambulances and firefighters is ‘unacceptable’ and is ‘a danger to the general public’. The agency says there is a ‘clear pattern’ of AVs interfering with ‌law enforcement and other first responders. See more coverage from TechCrunch, Reuters.

Making public transit accessible could boost UK economy by £176 billion

That’s a lot of billions. It is estimated that there are 2.8 million people in the UK who do not participate in the economy because they can’t physically get there. Almost half of professionals with disabilities have turned down job opportunities because of transport issues. Stations across the country lack lifts and ramps, have large gaps on platforms, and provide little to no tactile paving or sensory-friendly environments. “The analysis comes after the prime minister, Keir Starmer, announced billions of pounds of cuts to infrastructure projects across the UK last week to help cover a £15bn increase in defence spending over four years.” 🙃

A deep dive into the teenagers who hacked TfL

And how they got caught by ordering takeaway. One of my favourite pieces of local journalism has been about this teenage duo who hacked TfL / ransomed tens of millions of dollars from US companies. Highly recommend this deep dive of a read that is sort of transport-related.

How the UK plans to regulate AV marketing language

The UK is introducing guidelines to help consumers understand the assisted driving technology found in most cars today. The guidelines detail how drivers must understand the vehicle’s capabilities and their legal responsibilities, and the role companies take in ensuring drivers are educated and informed about the limits of the technology. “Misleading marketing also risks undermining public trust in self-driving technologies and fair competition with businesses whose vehicles have successfully undergone the self-driving safety assessment process.”

Spain launches their first AV bus pilot

I really enjoy reading about new / novel use cases for AVs. Take Spain, which has a whole trial centred around Mercamadrid, the country’s largest food distribution platform. It will run on a fixed timetable and will provide transport for more than 20,000 people passing through Mercamadrid each day.

People keep smoking in AVs (and other unsavoury activities)

Filed under: my personal worst nightmare. I am impressed by the candour Zoox’s Director of robot industrial design and studio engineering takes when talking about the less glamorous side of AVs. People are hot-boxing the vehicles, vomiting in them, and having sex. In an unsupervised environment, people are proving that they can’t have nice things. Zoox, in turn, has outfitted vehicles with more moisture and odour-resistant materials.

New Jersey’s AV regulations could toss Tesla to the side

As well as any operator that doesn’t leverage LiDAR to navigate street networks. A bill that will be voted on later this year mandates that robotaxis must have LiDAR technology. Since Tesla vehicles only use cameras, their approach wouldn’t work (and would cost $$$ to make compliant since this is a hardware issue). If the bill passes, New Jersey would be the first state to codify such a hardware mandate into law. The bill would establish a three-year pilot program governing the testing and deployment of fully autonomous vehicles in New Jersey.

The more you know:

• How the world cup has been boosting transit ridership across the US, Canada and Mexico (SmartCitiesDive)

• Abu Dhabi shares their AV trial has seen over 31k trips in its first six months of operation (Gulf News)

Waymo stalls in San Francisco during July 4th celebrations

And some even drove over fireworks with passengers inside. Many a vehicle needed to be towed after running out of charge (Business Insider). A very pro-tech city supervisor, Bilal Mahmood, is asking for an inquiry into why the service bricked (KQED).

Waymo announces expansion to four new US cities

Las Vegas, San Diego, Denver, and Tampa are the next cities to welcome Waymo. While Las Vegas has seen its fair share of AV pilots over the years, Denver and San Diego will see AV service for the first time. Tampa has a shuttle service operational in partnership with a local transit agency (see here). Waymo plans to also launch their ‘Ojai’ model (aka the shuttle toaster) in these markets.

Tesla driver charged after driving into Texas home, killing one

On the one hand, I’m genuinely glad that FSD software didn’t steer a car into somebody’s home, killing a 70 year-old grandmother, and on the other, I’m dismayed by the fact that this could ever happen. The driver has now been charged with manslaughter, which is also surprising. There is a saying in transportation that if you want to get away with murder, you should do it while driving, since repercussions rarely, if ever, come to fruition.

Shared roadways, platforms, and benefits: Integrating autonomous travel choices

A big woop for our friends over at the Eno Centre for Transport for publishing this provocative piece about how AVs could / should share roads with other users.

“Barring a significant change in these costs and technological capabilities, neither personal AVs nor robotaxis are likely to fully displace personally owned human driven vehicles or human driven taxis and rideshare for some time.. This paper focuses primarily on the near- and medium-term implications of robotaxi deployment through hybrid networks, addressing the longerterm implications of personally owned AVs as a distinct and later-arriving technology. The persistence of shared roadways means that the overall impact of AVs on driving safety and travel patterns will be partial, and potentially uneven across geographic and demographic cohorts. It’s also clear from early data and from modeling of AV deployment that the impacts of AVs on roadway safety, travel patterns, labor, and equity are not inherently positive or negative but depend instead on deployment market structures and policy decisions.”

Right-wing voters are delaying bike infrastructure improvements in Paris

“Paris has implemented only 43% of its 2021-2026 bicycle network plan by its 2026 deadline, but the delays are not equally distributed. Correlating political voting and bicycle infrastructure data, we find that boroughs with a higher share of right-wing votes are also boroughs with the largest delays in bicycle infrastructure development. Although the number of voting units is only 17, this correlation is remarkably strong and significant. At the city scale, for each additional 1% of right-wing votes, we find 0.86% less protected bicycle lanes built.”

Are AVs safer than human drivers? (Podcast link!)

Johnathon Ehsani, an associate professor at John Hopkins, explores this question over a Q&A and podcast. “While early safety results are promising, experts caution that more evaluation is needed before their use is expanded. But a lack of uniform guidelines on data reporting and regulation makes a definitive safety analysis difficult.”

What I always find interesting when talking about public health and AVs, and the urgency that we should do something now to save lives, is that if local leaders really wanted to save lives they could have done so already. Where is the public health discussion about how safe public transit is relative to driving? Or the physical health benefits of active travel? We can not only save lives, we can also make them better.

Urban form and car commuting

“Big urban data, combined with artificial intelligence, holds great potential to facilitate scalable yet location-specific planning to reduce urban travel and related emissions. However, current research falls short in recognizing underlying variable dependencies, understanding neighborhood-specific differences, and comparing relationships across world regions. Here, we present a systematic quantitative analysis of how urban form influences car-based work trip distance and related emissions in six cities on three continents.. We find significant direct dependencies between urban form and car-based work trip distance, neglected in previous research. Across cities, geographic access to city center and employment matters more than density or connectivity, yet the magnitude of such effects and their spatial distribution vary depending on a city’s size and centrality.”

Rethinking congestion as lost access

“Urban congestion and social disparity are persistent problems in large cities worldwide. However, congestion is typically assessed from a mobility perspective using traffic performance measures, with limited attention to its impact on urban accessibility inequality. Here, we propose reframing congestion, not merely as problem of slower speeds and longer travel times, but as lost access to opportunities due to excess time in traffic, that mostly affects lower income communities. To illustrate this, we estimate the impact of congestion on employment accessibility in Brazil's 20 largest cities.. Across all cities, low-income communities face the most severe impacts, with an average 24.8% reduction in accessibility, compared to just 5.6% among high-income groups.”

Internships! Thank you to Calli for sharing both!

• [San Francisco, CA - SFCTA] Strategy and Technology Policy Intern

• [San Francisco, CA - SFCTA] Data and Forecasting Intern

• Last weekend, I went to see Backrooms, and I must say, I did not get it. Although if I had to guess, I am not the intended audience. Afterwards, I attempted to see what the online discourse was saying, and found this review summed up my sentiments well enough. I’d give it two stars, personally.

• With the summer heat, I’ve been making multiple trips to the ponds and local lidos (british for ‘pool’). As a year-round outdoor swimmer, it’s always fun to see everybody pop out of the woodwork on a steamy summer’s day; there’s genuinely nothing better than a dip.

• Finally, I got to see one of my most favourite musicians, Leif Vollebekk, play the Barbican with the BBC Symphony Orchestra last weekend, and it was life-changing! Reverant! Meditative! Beautiful! I went with my friend Sylvia, and it was just a very special night. Hoping there will be a live recording released so I can relive the night for many years to come.

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah

If you’d like to support my work and this newsletter, please consider becoming a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition or making a donation.

I am back in London, after a cup-filling trip to San Francisco. I’m here for another week before I head to Sicily, where I will be reporting from the beach. As I have two weeks of news to cover, this week’s edition is a mix of blurbs and bullet points. On y va!

How AVs continue to advance, despite all the ‘glitches’

Bloomberg calls them glitches; I’m going to call them fundamental errors. This article is more of an industry recap: what are AVs, where do they operate, how are they regulated, and why is it taking so long to get off the ground. I was hoping the journalist would consider why cities support using their citizens as guinea pigs for this technology, given the headline, but it doesn’t touch on that. I’d personally be very curious to hear from city officials about why they think the tech is worth the risk (and how far their threshold for ‘glitches’ reaches).

Drivers protest over AVs coming to London

Taxi and ride-hailing drivers showed up at a London Assembly Transport Committee meeting last week in protest over AVs coming to the Capital. ‘The meeting was forced to a stop several times as individual drivers spoke out, with the committee and speakers leaving the room whilst security officers removed protesters.’ Protesters highlighted how similar approaches in NYC resulted in governments backtracking on promised AV advancements.

The UN adopts first-ever global rules for AVs

Highlights include mandating safety management systems, credible testing, safety‑case validation, and continuous in‑service monitoring. The framework is supported by the US, China, EU, Japan, Canada, and the UK.

The more you know:

• How the Trump administration is rewriting AV regulations to make it easier for auto OEMs to innovate (Axios, GovTech)

• Carspeading: how cars continue to get bigger and bigger, year on year (Transport Environment, shout out to Richard for sharing!). See also this NYT piece that visualises this trend.

• Deaths linked to air pollution in London have fallen 40% in only five years, in case you were wondering why congestion charging and sustainable transport infrastructure are important :) (The Guardian)

• Ho Chi Min will trial L4 vehicles in a sandbox environment (Tuoi Tre News)

Uber and Waymo part ways in Phoenix

A quiet break-up, but a break-up nonetheless. Waymo has removed its vehicles from Uber’s platform in Phoenix; it continues to partner with Uber in Austin and Atlanta. It appears Uber will announce another partnership in the coming weeks to fill the gap. Uber has their eggs spread across many baskets, whereas Waymo seems likely to move forward by betting on itself. With the ridership levels Waymo is seeing via its own platform, losing any percentage of revenue to a partner—and competitor—like Uber seems like bad economics.

See more coverage here: Inc., Quartz, TechCrunch

The more you know:

• I somehow missed this story about a Waymo driving off with a customer’s luggage at the airport, before the flight, resulting in what can only be considered a massive headache (Futurism)

• VW seems to be on the verge of canning their partnership with Bosch, which started in 2022 and saw $1.7 billion investment from the auto OEM (Carscoops)

• Tesla has started testing their cybercab model sans braking pads and steering wheel in Austin, a vehicle I hope to never step foot in (TechCrunch)

  • Separately, last week, a Tesla in FSD mode drove into a home in Texas, killing a 76-year old woman. She lived with her daughter, son-in-law and their three children, all of whom were also at home at the time of the crash (BBC). Tesla claims the driver manually overrode their system (The Verge).

• A look at how Wayve’s business model differs from that of Waymo or Tesla (WSJ)

• Transportation and Quality-of-Life Effects of Los Angeles’s Mobility Wallet Program (Journal of the American Planning Association; this research is led by Tamika Butler who does incredible work if you’re unfamiliar)

• A delightful read from a parent in Los Angeles about how her teenage niece started using Waymos and the pros / cons of that choice (LA Times), which reminds me of this article about teenagers ‘partying’ in Waymos in LA (Futurism)

• How cities fail at night transport, and why it matters (this hits close to home because 9 out of 10 times I’m in a car, it’s because it’s late at night and getting home requires sitting at a bus stop for 15+ minutes) (ITS)

• Some highlights from my time in California: the Matisse exhibit at SFMoMA, riding BayWheels around town, eating dumplings with friends, swimming in the bay, seeing the legendary canadian trio of stars / broken social scene / metric live, and getting to see miss coco again!!

• The best part of my California trip was a weekend up at Sea Ranch. Photos don’t do it justice. I was up with my friends Debs and Calli, and essentially spent our time being healed by the nature of the sea (à la olden days when doctors used to prescribe seaside retreats for everything from melancholia to leprosy). We laughed so hard we cried multiple times. We tie-dyed our hearts out. We danced, partied and cooked nourishing meals. Highly, highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in that corner of the world.

• I came back to London and was blessed with free Harry Styles tickets. I went on Canada Day and Shania Twain opened for him. We bopped, we sang, and ate some fantastic pick n mix.

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah

If you’d like to support my work and this newsletter, please consider becoming a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition or making a donation.

I am writing to you from Sunny San Francisco, where I surprised my bestest friend (shout out Tookie!!) for her birthday this week. I kept it to a smol, closed group of humans who knew, and managed to pull off a heist of a birthday surprise. Because my body is still confused about the time zone I’m in, this week’s newsletter is in bullet points. However, if you’re in the Bay and want to say, I’m in the city until the 25th.

Next week, there will be no newsletter, as I’ll be adventuring up in Northern California. Without further ado, the news!

• How to fix transit construction in the US (Slow Boring)

• UK government releases draft safety standards for AVs and asks public for their feedback on approach (more to come on this topic when life is a little less busy!) (UK Gov)

• Dubai is launching a $1.2m AV trial to try and reach 25% autonomous journeys by 2030 (Arabian Business)

• Waymo’s ambitions in New Orleans face regulatory hurdles (Axios)

• Minneapolis puts forward a permitting framework for robotaxis (Planetizen)

• Saudi updates traffic regulations for AVs (Saudi Gazette)

• Trump’s Transit Secretary (Sean Duffy, famous for his previous career in reality TV!!!) rescinds major civil rights law that ensures federally-funded projects don’t have unintentional disparate impacts on protected classes (KQED)

• Uber plans to launch AV service in Houston in 2027 (Tech Crunch)

• Mobileye targets a US robotaxi launch for 2027 (CNBC)

• How Lyft’s approach to bringing AVs to London includes making nice with the taxi industry (City AM)

• Baidu will bring its L4 robotaxi service to Switzerland (Electrek)

• Surprising nobody, Tesla has been found to have misled European regulators regarding their FSD safety data (Reuters)

• GM still has plans to take a piece of the robotaxi pie after disbanding Cruise (Business Insider)

• Waymo recalls fleet of 3,900 vehicles over issues driving into construction sites (Reuters)

• Modeling Residential Vehicle Miles Travelled at Block Group Level in California (Transport Findings)

• Dutch children are happier and healthier because walking is embedded in their everyday life (The Guardian)

• What the US can learn from London’s ‘war on cars’ (Yale Climate Connections)

• Tesla’s robotaxi program is a complete disaster (is this an opinion…….. or just fact…….) (Futurism)

• We should regulate AVs like we regulate aviation (Streetsblog)

• Not even sure where to begin with bits and bobs this week 😂 but! Last weekend I got to celebrate more geminis (yay) and baked a lemon olive oil cake with whipped elderflower icing, and a chocolate cake with earl grey icing, and both were huge hits.

• I finished reading I Want You To Be Happy, which I enjoyed but was also very naval-gaze-y given I live in East London. I attempted to read Faces on the Tip of my Tongue, but hated it so much I didn’t finish it. I’m now on to The Correspondent, and I’m excited since it just won the Women’s Prize.

• My itinerary for being in California mostly includes quality time with friends and pups over dumplings and pasta supply co, and attempting to get a big GULP of sunshine. As I’m writing in this at a fav local cafe, Carly Rae Jepsen’s Cut to the Feeling is playing, and it is such a bop.

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah

If you’d like to support my work and this newsletter, please consider becoming a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition or making a donation.

A few days ago marked Along for the Ride’s 8th birthday. As somebody who never aspired to be a ‘writer’ or thought of themselves as such, it’s a funny milestone to hit. I’d say most of the feedback that my professors gave me in university was that my essays typically lacked a central argument or strong opinion. And oh, how the times have changed. Writing this newsletter has helped me have more clarity not just on how I think about transportation and this industry, but also how I develop opinions elsewhere in my life. About when I still stand by my opinions with conviction, or soften them as time and new information help shape my feelings towards things big (politics, family dynamics, work life) and small (how I spend my mornings, email promptness, spelling mistakes).

Writing and sharing your opinion about the world each week is incredibly humbling. Sometimes I look back and I’m like, ‘huh, that feeling I had eight years ago was right on the money’ and other times I’m like, ‘oh, that Waymo didn’t drive down the wrong side of the tunnel in London, it was escorted out by the police and somebody took an out-of-context photo and posted it on reddit and my rabbit brain went ‘ah ha! gotcha! and now I have to clarify for my readers for the sake of integrity’ (real story from this past week!).

But the thing I’m grateful for is having an opinion and caring enough about this industry and topic to share it (and for the grace from this audience for my thoughts and opinions to change, for mistakes to be made, and to never stay too rigid*). As of today, there are 1,569 subscribers, and of those, I’d guess I maybe know 100-150 of you personally. I do—quite frankly—no marketing for this newsletter (😂), but I do appreciate every new reader, and hope that in some small way my writing helps you form your own opinions, whether our thinking lines up perfectly or find themselves at opposite ends of the spectrum.

The last thing I’ll say is that writing this newsletter has inspired me to write more generally. I keep journals, write poems, join writers circles and am working on two novels (slowly, surely). I don’t think I would have ever had the ambition, nor the delusion, to start other endeavours without the steady beat that this newsletter has given me. Ya never know how things will snowball, but I’m now a believer that it’s always a good idea to at least let a ball start rolling.

Thanks for eight whole years! Thanks for reading! I wish you sunshine, rainbows, and protected bike lanes. Onto the news!

Arrested mobility and the fight for Black movement

Sharing a new book release and interview with Professor Charles T. Brown about his research on how Black freedom has been restricted in the US by America’s approach to transportation and the policing of Black people.

“I chose to center the Black experience because I am a Black man living in America and I felt most qualified to speak about arrested mobility due to that. However, arrested mobility isn’t just about Black Americans. It’s a framework for understanding how systems restrict movement for certain groups. What we’re seeing now — whether it’s immigration enforcement, overpolicing or even policies that limit access to basic services — it’s the same pattern.

Mobility is power. When you restrict someone’s ability to move, physically, economically or socially, you’re restricting someone’s freedom. In this moment, the book’s message can be applied more broadly. I want people to ask: who can move freely, who can’t and why. And then I want to work with them to design systems that protect, not punish, movement for everyone.”

London agencies offer clarity on AV approach

Despite all of the hubbub about AVs in London these past few years, much of the foundational structure came from the central government and not local agencies such as the Greater London Authority (city hall) or Transport for London. The GLA has finally made a statement about how they are organising (or planning to organise) for AVs in the city.

“The London Assembly Transport Committee will begin its investigation into how autonomous passenger vehicles may work in practice and how they could impact jobs, licensing, regulation, road safety, congestion, cyber security and Londoners’ transport choices.” If you’re a nerd, you can watch the Transport Committee meeting from this week on YouTube and listen to experts (including some AFTR readers who I adore!!) comment on how they think London should approach licensing vehicles. I’d like to cheer on the moderator for asking how AVs fit into the Mayor’s Transport Strategy and Healthy Streets approach, which has the primary goal of shifting modes away from motor vehicles and towards public, sustainable transport modes.

Zag Daily has a recap of the meeting here. Some quotes from the meeting that I enjoyed were:

• “Providers would like our attention focused on the safety question so that we don’t ask whether this is something we need.” - Prof. Glenn Lyons

• “Just because this is the model we are being offered doesn’t mean robotaxis are actually the best model.” - Thomas Abelman (ex-TfL)

• “The danger is letting companies mark their own homework” - Prof. Jack Stilgoe

New York City introduces more sensors for surveillance

Surveillance is a major aspect of debates around AVs, but it’s largely one I don’t touch on (if you’re an expert here and want to share your thoughts with other readers, let me know!). However, I thought this week I’d share this piece about NYC installing sensors to detect pedestrians, vehicles, and other road users to inform better road design. My brain is somewhere between ‘we live in the end-times’ and ‘can’t wait for better road design, you have my heart, mamdani’.

London is the stage for the global AV showdown

Don’t get me wrong, London is that girl. I understand why everybody has their knickers in a knot about wanting to launch here. The city is home to so much transport history, and there is something emblematic about bringing new transport innovations to the city. However, London is also one of the cities that I think needs AVs the least. If there was a use case for AVs, I’d say it’d be a city where buses run every 30 minutes, not every three. I’m curious how the uptake will be, the volume of vehicles needed to meet demand, and how many ‘hiccups’ we’ll see. With the money these companies are directly funnelling to London, I think it would take a serious loss for these companies to change course. See more coverage from the BBC.

Waymo built a virtual driver to compare against human drivers

The devil works hard, but Waymo’s press team works harder!! This week, Waymo announced a new ‘Reference Driver model’ that works as a ‘behavioural crash test dummy’ to determine how to better respond to surprises on the road. The focus is on crash avoidance, however, I think Waymo also needs to think about some of the scenarios where a vehicle isn’t actively ‘crashing’ but still operating dangerously (thinking of the school bus scenario, or the puddles, or parking in bike lanes).

It’s a good piece to read if you want to learn more about how the human brain handles surprise. I learned a lot!

Waymo’s World Cup

Wired has an interesting piece about how, for many international travellers coming to the US for the World Cup, this marks their first opportunity to ride an autonomous vehicle—and Waymo is the primary service provider. There are a million social media moments of international tourists trying to walk to these stadiums and realising it will take them 5+ hours along a highway with 60mph traffic and nowhere protected to walk. But it’s okay, because who needs functioning public infrastructure when you have private robo-toasters on wheels. (P.S. World Cup is also in Canada and Mexico, and if you haven’t seen Vancouver’s lil Fifa Ball, you should! That’s it, my era of caring about football concludes … now. Please enjoy your sports!)

In other news, beeping Waymos continue to wake up London residents with it’s back-up chirp (BBC), the company bought Apple’s abandoned testing site for $220m (Electrek), and they are ramping up their global empire with hints Australia will be next (Drive).

Bolt launches their first AV pilot in Luxembourg

In partnership with Pony.AI, Bolt has launched a robotaxi pilot in Luxembourg. “The pilot is being positioned as a “living lab” for testing both the autonomous technology and the operational processes required to scale such as vehicle deployment, ride-hailing platform integration, fleet management and regulatory coordination.” No info yet for when the pilot will launch.

Tesla gets approval from Belgium to sell ‘FSD’

Belgium joins the ranks of the Netherlands, Lithuania, Estonia and Denmark to approve the technology and allow people to purchase upgrades for their personal vehicles. I personally wouldn’t put my worst enemy in a Tesla (maybe one Cheeto Puff exception 👀), but that’s just me.

Addressing travel needs for women and children on public transport

I couldn’t seem to copy and paste the abstract, so below are some key findings for the group!

• Transit agencies did not feel like they had the capacity to collect, analyse, and track the necessary data to understand the experiences of women and families on their systems

• The use of KPIs is underutilised as a means of evaluating the effectiveness of programs or policies and is almost absent when it comes to measuring the experiences of women and families

• Agency staff who were interested in improving the experience were uncertain about how to generate internal support and momentum on these issues

• Agency staff want case studies to understand the context better and hear success stories from other agencies so they can bolster support from within their own agency

AVs don’t reduce traffic

ArsTechnica takes a deeper dive into research out of MIT (shared in last week’s newsletter!) that shows robotaxis aren’t reducing traffic in California. The research shows that about 44 percent of Waymo’s driven miles are conducted with empty EVs. In total, about 40 percent of the miles travelled by a Lyft or Uber driver are deadhead miles, suggesting there’s little difference in congestion whether there’s a human behind the wheel or not.

Robotaxis are a solution in search of a problem

This article’s title doesn’t quite match its substance, and focuses more on the economics of AVs and the struggle of making the business case work for the company, rather than being about the solution cities themselves need.

“When the first automobiles appeared in Germany, villagers and townsfolk thought they were witchcraft: these Teufelswagen, or “devil’s carriages”, had been sent to steal their horses. What might they think of machines that drive themselves? “The cost of a horse is a continuous expense whether he works or not,” one early advertisement in 1898 reminded consumers. With a motor car, the “expense, care and anxiety” of maintaining a horse disappears, it promised. But taking the driver out and making the robotaxi pay is proving more expensive than anyone thought.”

Waymo’s growing pains in the Bay Area

Three cheers for local radio. This is a listen-in situation folks.

“Self-driving car companies like Waymo say their autonomous vehicles are dramatically safer than human drivers. But a new CNN investigation found that when things do go wrong, they tend to go wrong in decidedly un-human ways: being incapable of responding to instructions from first responders, driving through crime scenes, and even attempting to traverse entirely flooded streets. As Waymo expands into new markets nationwide, we’ll examine these safety issues — and hear why a lot of passengers love self-driving cars anyway.”

A Waymo nearly hit them, but they’re still optimistic about AVs

Filed under: couldn’t be me.

“I was circling a roundabout as I cycled home from work and a Waymo was about to pull onto it in front of me. I had priority, but it didn’t seem to be slowing and looked to be heading straight for me, then suddenly stopped.. in short the AI didn’t look like it was going to stop, so a human jumped in. I asked Waymo how often humans have to do that in London, but the company told me it doesn’t have that data and doesn’t like to focus on it as a metric.”

• This past week felt very literary. I enjoyed (and felt the rage) of At Sea written by Y.M. Abdel-Magied, and got to go to one of her book signings in London this week. I also went to a book signing / poetry evening with Jem Calder, who wrote I Want You To Be Happy (up next on my to-be-read pile). One of the perks of being in London is the sheer number of literary folks just abounding in the city.

• On the weekend, I went to see Jinkx Monsoon of Drag Race fame perform a 2.5-hour set about Judy Garland. I wish I liked it, I wanted to like it, but the truth is that I found it repetitive, too long, and nearly fell asleep. This Guardian review sums it up quite well.

• I have a new favourite burger in London, and it’s at The Edinburgh. Enough said!!

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah

If you’d like to support my work and this newsletter, please consider becoming a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition or making a donation.

I started writing this edition a few hours before the Arsenal Premier League parade floated through North London on Sunday, and it took until today to send it as I bid farewell to my parents yesterday. As the child of two Arsenal-adoring parents, it’s been adorable and shocking how much football took over my life the last three weeks. It’s been weirdly wholesome given the degree of excitement. Cakes were baked, red bunting hung across streets, restaurants painted their exteriors red, and everybody was just so happy? On Saturday, I watched as grown men consoled small children after the Champions League final, giving them pep talks on sitting with disappointment and showing up to support the club for all that was accomplished. The evening still ended with the neighbourhood singing cheers of joy, and Islington literally being painted red (I still have a cough from the flares).

As it’s been two weeks sans newsletter, all the news is in bullet-point form to capture it all. Ad libs included where I couldn’t bite my tongue. P.S. Next week marks eight years of me writing this newsletter (🤯), so I’ll have to think up a special way to celebrate. On y va.

• For my fellow nerds, I present a visualisation of everybody moving across London’s tube network (London Riders)

• TfL leaders call AV technology ‘unproven’ and voice concerns over upcoming trials (Financial Times)

• TfL is introducing more bus safety standards, including improvements to the interior of the buses to prevent slips, better meet the needs of people using wheelchairs, and more. (BBC)

• The UK has opened applications for AV companies to apply to operate (more on this in next week’s edition!) (DfT)

• Bristol Mayor rejects efforts to bring AV trial to city, says she is ‘much more focused on delivering better buses’ (Bristol Post)

• The NYTs has a piece on blind passengers finding joy and independence riding alone in Waymo vehicles that I assume was pitched by Waymo. (NYTs)

  • N.B. I imagine most people with disabilities would not feel great when their robotaxi runs red lights, drives into flood zones, freeway construction sites, goes offline in the middle of their trip, or bumps into a child during school drop-off. A transport product is only accessible if it still allows for safe movement even when the technology fails (hence why we love bus drivers, amiright).

• On the first day of service, an autonomous bus in Gothenburg, Sweden got ‘trammed’, aka hit by a tram and towed away (The Register)

• Bogotá, the city that really made bus rapid transit sexy, is finally getting a metro system too (very happy for their transitmaxxxing glow up) (Highspeed)

• As robotaxis spread across the US, so does their backlash (WSJ)

• The above image captures a Waymo driving the wrong way down Waterloo Bridge. The car seems to have driven the wrong way through the one-way underpass and was intercepted by a police car (Reddit). Waymo also had to suspend freeway driving in the US after vehicles sped through construction zones and fled police (The Independent, Futurism)

• In other news, Waymo plans to start introducing its Chinese-made toaster model to a handful of cities in the US (Wired, Smart Cities Dive), and dominates in terms of the number of AVs registered in the US (TechCrunch)

• China’s BYD is paying out for crashes involving the company’s assisted driving software (Gizmodo)

• Tesla insiders say their AV technology is a complete disaster (is this news?) (Futurism), and the company is rolling out the tech in China (SCMP)

• A closer look at how Uber is using AVs to collect data (The Verge)

• Millions of trips and empty miles, a review of California’s first 1000th days of robotaxi service (Transport Findings)

• The next big challenge for AV companies isn’t driving, it’s coordinating with local authorities (true!) (Forbes)

• What NYC should demand from Waymo while they’ve got the upper hand (Curbed)

• Wait until everyone buys their own AVs (Bloomberg)

• What if AVs don’t cut traffic (Ars Technica)

Full-time jobs!

• [Greater London Authority - GLA] Graduate Planner

• My parents, Peanut and I were in Edinburgh for a week, and it’s such a perfect walking city (minus some humbling hills). The architecture is beautiful, and as a city, it’s remarkably small, so it’s easy to accomplish a lot with only a handful of days. Some highlights: walking up Calton Hill, dinner at Lucky Yu, walking along the Water of Leith Walkway, and bumbling into cute old pubs.

• I read Yesteryear, and it’s as compelling as everybody says it is. I have a lot of thoughts on the decisions made, but ultimately really enjoyed it. Please let me know what you think of the ending!!

• Otherwise, I’ve been bopping around London with my parents and friends. The V&A’s Schiaparelli exhibit is fantastic, summer strolls through the Heath and Regent’s Park lovely, and the David Bowie lightroom experience very engaging.

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend, friends.

Sarah

If you’d like to support my work and this newsletter, please consider becoming a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition or making a donation.

Minimal preamble this week, and no newsletter next week as Peanut and I are hosting my parents. Let’s dive in, shall we!

When accessibility is an afterthought

I really enjoyed this piece from Christine Link (highly recommend her substack, the Accessible Link for all things accessibility + transport-related). In her most recent edition, she talks about how adjustments made to make navigating airports easier for people with disabilities fail to make the space more meaningfully inclusive.

Are robotaxis antisocial?

This is a long read from the Atlantic about the role taxi drivers have played in cities across the world, across time. It’s well written and takes a focus on an area I think often overlooked when talking about AVs: the social aspect of our transportation systems. What modes isolate us, and those that connect us (all hail the mighty bus).

“Most of us live in silos, clustered together with people whose jobs, educations, incomes, languages, and faiths are similar to or the same as our own. We have few occasions to brush against other ways of living, few ways to interact with people of different backgrounds. These moments are meaningful and rare, and the taxi cab is one place where they regularly happen.”

A spotlight on my nemesis: the highway lobby

Super interesting piece about how highway lobbying works, the companies behind it and the impact it has on individuals (namely, making it also impossible to live a good life without owning a car).

Brent Councillors create petition to pause AV deployment in London

The Brent Green Party is asking London Mayor Sadiq Khan to pause the upcoming AV pilot after a Waymo test vehicle drove through a police cordon at the end of April. The petition also raises concerns about public consultations, congestion, and job losses.

The more you know:

• A poll of 1,000 San Franciscans shows changing attitudes towards AVs, with 42% saying AVs are a good thing for the city (SF Chronicle)

• NJ Senate approves AV pilot programme (Route Fifty)

• Los Angeles welcomes new public transit line, a reminder that incremental investments in change are possible!!!! (The Guardian)

NHTSA opens prob into Avride

After 16 crashes, NHTSA is investigating Avride. The concern is that the vehicles are exhibiting behaviour that shows ‘excessive assertiveness and insufficient capability’, which ‘may also constitute traffic safety violations’. “NHTSA said the vehicles had executed lane ​changes into other vehicles and failed to avoid vehicles or objects ⁠in the road, resulting in crashes.” This makes my eye twitch, as this is where we see the argument that AVs are safer than human drivers fall flat (and the massive gap that exists between different providers).

Wayve inks formal partnership with UK’s Department for Business and Trade

Wayve and the DBT signed an MoU to set out a framework for joint research into the responsible deployment of self-driving technology on British roads. “Wayve will share data from real-world trials with government and regulators to support learning that could inform future regulations and standards, and help establish the conditions for national roll-out of self-driving services.” See more coverage from The Independent.

Waymo recalls vehicles after puddle-gate

After vehicles drove into flooded streets in San Antonio, Waymo voluntarily paused its local fleet and then recalled all vehicles to push an interim software update to mitigate the issue. Seems like a longer-term solution is still in development. See more coverage from the BBC, LA Times, Inc.

Separately, Waymo has apologised for excessive beeping during late night / early morning operations in London, where its vehicles keep hitting dead ends (BBC).

The more you know:

• Waymo is expanding its service area across existing cities ahead of the World Cup. They now reach 1,400+ sq mi (Electrek)

• Tesla’s robotaxi wait times in Texas make taking a greyhound seem efficient (Reuters)

• Nuro receives permit to operate in California (Electrek)

What does an economically efficient allocation of street space look like

“This paper analyzes how street space should be allocated across cars, buses, bicycles, and parking in order to maximize economic efficiency, i.e. the aggregate economic well-being of all the people who use a city’s transport system minus the public funds required to run this system.. We find that re-allocating street space from cars to buses and especially bicycles improves efficiency. Effect magnitudes and the extent of optimal re-allocations vary between cities. We also shed light on the channels through which re-allocations impact on efficiency.”

Why we need to prioritise well-maintained sidewalks

“Unique among all public spaces, sidewalks inherently entail a sprawling collision among uses. We travel on sidewalks — to work, to school, to recreation. We also engage in commerce on sidewalks — from outdoor dining to advertising, vendors, delivery robots, scooter rentals and more. We socialize and protest there. It’s where we put infrastructure that keeps the city running, such as utility poles and lighting. Some people even sit and sleep there.”

• Last weekend I saw The Sheep Detective, and it is genuinely as wonderful as everybody says. Didn’t think I’d be crying over sheep, but I wept. A film filled with CGI sheep somehow manages to talk about grief and acceptance in the most tender way. Highly recommend!!!

• I have a soft spot for the Venice Biennale, and always find so much inspiration in the art people make during ~unprecedented times~. This review from the Guardian captured the art, and this op-ed on why the biennale is so hotly contested this year (inc. why the jury presiding over the biennale resigned days before it opened).

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah

If you’d like to support my work and this newsletter, please consider becoming a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition or making a donation.

It’s local election week here in London, and while I’m sitting in a London borough that is likely to go Green (woo), much of the country is seeing the sweep of the Reform party. For those of you outside the UK, these are the bad guys. This election is also being held at the ward and borough level, meaning those elected have immense power over the day-to-day of how their constituents move through their neighbourhoods.

For example, the Reform party has pledged to remove Low Traffic Neighbourhoods from any constituency it has power over (BBC results here, to understand the scale this will imply). But don’t worry, they also want to build more migrant detention centres, remove ILR (aka permanent residency), scrap net zero emission policies, defend british culture and traditions (notably stealing other people’s culture and traditions), encourage women to have more babies (yes), cut civil service jobs, and cut foreign aid. 🫠

All of this to say, sometimes we are hyper-focused on mayoral or national elections, but local elections—the person who represents you and your neighbours when deciding where the bins go, if your street is well-lit, or how well-kept your local park is—matter. I’m glad I live in a bubble, but I’m also aware that the bubble is bursting.

Invitation to join Automated Mobility in Practice: A Course for Mobility Decision Makers

PAVE and the University of St. Gallen are leading an AV course for mobility decision-makers this June (23rd–25th). The target group is public sector authorities at local, regional and national levels. Over three days, participants will dig into the "why", what problems AVs actually solve for their city or authority, before turning to the policy tools, regulatory frameworks, and governance structures needed to make that vision real.

Please let me know if you’d like to learn more or be put in touch with the organisers. This is an incredible opportunity to be proactive about AV policies, and is organised by urbanists and academics alike.

OK, without further diversions, the (transport-related) news:

How the US fell so behind on public transport

Today I learned it would cost the US $4.6tn to bring their cities up-to-par with European levels of public transport. It’s a massive figure, but it’s also important to remind ourselves that public transport isn’t rocket science. It’s buses that come every five minutes. And investing in the WMATA metro so the trains don’t catch fire during the summer. While a bit depressing, this read from the Guardian is well researched, visual, and a reminder that it’s never too late to invest in the bus.

Policing isn’t the solution to deadly road traffic

The Policing Project and the ACLU published Safe Roads for All, which provides evidence-based strategies for making roadways safe. Their primary argument is that cities can’t “enforce their way out of a public health crisis rooted in poor design, misaligned incentives, and decades of policy choices that prioritized the flow of cars over the safety of people”. Amen to that.

I really like the part of the report that discusses why we need to shift from punishment to protection, and how safer infrastructure makes everybody’s experience of moving through a city safer.

How one-way streets became death traps and what cities can do about that

This piece in Governing looks at major one-way motorways that were initially designed to move as many people in cars as quickly as possible, through urban centres full of pedestrians. Many don’t realise that these speedways are not only dangerous by design but also limit business. The article is focused on the US, but the interventions discussed apply to any city that wants to convert street space back to places where people can safely live, converse and play.

Berlin Campaigners want a car-free city centre.

Berlin features a 37 kilometre (23 mile) circular railway, and campaigners want to see all streets inside it reclassified as "car‑reduced”. Campaigners are clear that their proposal isn’t anti-car but "against the overuse of cars and the use of oversized cars in the city area."

The more you know!

• A comprehensive look at urban sprawl in the US (John Hopkins)

• How do Americans get groceries without a car, aka ‘two buses, three hours, and 13 miles’ (The Guardian)

• Bloomberg Philanthropies commits $350m to support cycling infrastructure in 30 cities globally (This is your reminder, sometimes infrastructure change is cheap! Momentum Mag)

How autonomous technology has found its second act

The NYTs has a piece about how the technology behind AVs was forced to find new problems to solve after a decade of stop-start advancements. The piece spotlights companies that pivoted to other industries and are now using similar tech to manage shipyards, in-home elder care services, wind turbines, and city traffic. It dives deeply into Lidar specifically, as the most applicable technology being used across other industries.

Your kid shouldn’t be riding alone in a Waymo

People under the age of 18 are prohibited from riding alone in Waymos in all of their operational cities, save for Phoenix, Arizona where parents can set up teen accounts for their 14+ aged children. And yet. Parents across their operations are ordering vehicles to take their children to school, sports, and friends’ houses. This article covers some laughable moments of Waymos attempting to verify the age of passengers. As it turns out, you can be a 35-year old tech bro in san francisco (complete with messy hair and a backpack) and be mistaken for a teenager.

In other Waymo news, a vehicle in Austin got stumped by a puddle last week (The Independent).

Uber’s plan to turn its drivers into a fleet of data mappers

Uber wants to outfit its human drivers’ cars (which they notably do not own) with sensors to capture data for AV companies. This follows on from their launch of AV Labs earlier this year. According to Uber, the “limiting factor” for AV development is no longer the underlying technology, but rather access to the data / mapping insights needed for vehicles to navigate streets.

The more you know!

• Tesla reached their self-defined threshold for what ‘safe and unsupervised’ driving means, but it doesn’t seem to be enough for them to turn on FSD … shocking nobody (The Verge)

• What AV tech got right that the agriculture industry can borrow (Precision Farming Dealer ….. a first for me! But interesting nonetheless!)

What a life without driving looks like

“Nearly one-third of eligible residents in the United States do not have a driver's license. An even larger share of the population likely lives without driving for various reasons, including disability, aging, financial constraints, or anxiety related to driving. Given the substantial size of this population, their perspectives and needs should be more fully integrated into transportation planning and policy. The interviews revealed that public transit and walking or rolling were the predominant means of transportation among nondrivers. The most frequently reported barriers included a lack of reliable transit services and inadequate pedestrian infrastructure.”

China’s differing approach to regulating AVs

This piece tries to argue that China is being more strict with AV companies after making the decision to pause future AV permits last week. However, I think China’s regulatory landscape was already quite relaxed, and thus, the pause in permits is a consequence of that initial approach. What say you!

“On March 31, over a hundred of Baidu’s Apollo Go robotaxis simultaneously froze on the streets of Wuhan. Vehicles stalled on overpasses and elevated roads, trapping passengers for up to two hours. A few weeks later, Beijing suspended all new autonomous driving permits nationwide. The suspension blocked robotaxi companies from adding to their fleets, starting new tests, or expanding to additional cities, according to Bloomberg. In the U.S., meanwhile, some autonomous vehicles are driving into street lights and even into the middle of ongoing crime scenes.”

Who will drive the AV revolution?

This piece questions whether Chinese or American AV companies will win the global race for AV domination.

“A recent report from the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP) argues that US companies still enjoy a commanding lead in the innovation game, but their Chinese rivals are speeding ahead in the deployment race. While US researchers have overcome many of the reliability and safety issues associated with AI’s jagged intelligence, Chinese operators are fast smoothing jagged adoption.”

Why we need to price the curb in advance of AVs at scale

“AVs are forcing the conversation that should have happened decades ago. A robo-taxi sitting in a metered space all morning is functionally no different from a private car doing the same thing — it’s just more visible, more obviously commercial, and harder to politically defend. That visibility is leverage. It’s the wedge that lets cities finally price and manage curb access at something closer to its real economic value, and use the revenue to fund transit, road redesigns for safety, and the maintenance backlog that’s been deferred for decades.”

Full-time jobs:

• [Copenhagen, DEN - Donkey Republic] Chief of Staff

• I went and saw The Devil Wears Prada 2 last weekend, and sadly thought it fell flat from the perfection of the first film. My overarching critique is that it missed a strong ‘moral of the story’ moment. However, the fashion was fun, Emily remains the perfect character, Meryl Streep never misses, and I want every version of Stanley Tucci to be my friend. So take with that what you will 😂

• It was a bank holiday here on Monday, so Peanut and I headed out on our first countryside walk with friends. She dominated a 10+ mile walk (I did some carrying, but she was mostly in lamb-mode, frolicking through the fields).

• I’m currently reading Brave and Bold, a history of the Ladies Pond. I’m naturally very biased as a regular swimmer, but I am loving the personal touch points the author brings in.

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah

If you’d like to support my work and this newsletter, please consider becoming a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition or making a donation.

After what felt like an infinite, never-ending, incredibly dreary winter in London, the change in seasons continues to do wonders for my dopamine levels. This past weekend, I cleaned up my outdoor patio and am now sitting outside with a glass of white wine, writing the newsletter with peanut on my lap. I can smell actual, real-life flowers, and even with the shit storm the world is in, something about this little cocoon makes me hopeful things could get better.

(You can’t see them, but there are hydrangeas and wisteria behind me, and I love them). So without further ado, I present ze news of which there is so much this week (inc. some must-read research below!):

China suspends new AV permits

After a fleet of Baidu AVs glitched in Wuhan last month, leaving passengers stranded on major motorways and creating traffic disruptions throughout the city, China has decided to stop issuing new AV permits. It isn’t clear how long the suspension will last, but Beijing has said they want a full review of the incident to ensure it (and other safety incidents like it) don’t happen again. This is a major turning point for the industry, as China has typically been far more lenient with operators and faster at expansion.

FWIW, Baidu still has not commented on the cause of last month’s disruption, and has only halted service in Wuhan. They continue to operate across all other cities without interruption. Not my playbook for building public trust, but hey ho.

When AVs park in the bike lane

The average human driver feels very comfortable pulling over in painted bike lanes for the convenience of dropping off passengers—and now it seems many AVs are following these same cues. Parking in a bike lane might not seem so controversial until you’re the person biking and are forced to enter vehicle traffic and be smushed between a vehicle moving at speed and another with passengers entering/exiting. It increases the likelihood of being doored, being hit, and just general anxiety from vehicles ‘punish passing’ you.

This is why I personally think we need protected bike infrastructure more than ever. Concrete protection means people who choose to walk or cycle can do so with peace of mind, and drivers—robot or human—are substantially less likely to endanger other road users.

California’s new AV regulations

Every headline about this seems to be clickbait about cops being able to issue AVs tickets, however the new regulations cover so much more than that. The new regs cover everything from emergency response (mandating that operators must respond to calls from first-responders in 30 seconds, geofencing active emergency zones), to more robust data sharing, and more stringent standards for remote operators. The regulation also clears the path for autonomous trucking in the state.

From my vantage point, this is responsive policy, adapting regulations to match the growing phase the industry is in. Time will tell how this impacts operations, but for the most part, I see the policy as common-sense adjustments in the right direction. See more from The Verge, The Hill, and Trucking Dive about the regulation, and this piece from Wired about first responders saying the technology is getting worse.

More US States passings laws to help people use cars less

This one is for the transport nerd herd. Brookings researched state-level VMT policy controls, including those that are working and those that have failed to address issues. They argue that more driving—especially if you own the vehicle, but even if you don’t—increases the overall cost of living for individuals. And as VMT increases, it also creates costs for governments that must maintain roads that see more and more wear and tear. Which is to say, the business case for driving remains abysmal.

There’s a great write-up in the Boston Globe about local-level opportunities to curb driving (and save our planet).

Washington DC’s robotaxi bill

Everybody’s favourite ‘will they, won’t they’ continues. The bill at this stage is merely a proposal; it will need to be voted on by other council members. One interesting part of the proposed bill is a ‘vehicle miles travelled fee’ (seems to be the theme of the week!). This fee would apply to every vehicle, and the revenue generated would fund public transit and support rideshare drivers facing job displacement. The bill likely won’t be passed for many more months, but it’s a step towards change. See op-ed in the Washington Post about the proposed bill.

The more you know!

• Cops can now ticket AVs in San Francisco (SF Standard)

• European cities that reduced traffic speeds to 30km/hr saw a 75% (!!!!) reduction in road deaths and injuries. Some changes are common sense. (Eurocities)

• Why super speeders should have speed-limiting devices installed in their vehicles (NYTs)

• How Manila residents pushed for safer streets, and won (WRI)

• Melbourne is extending their free public transit offer to May, and halving the price for the remainder of the year to support residents struggling with recent oil price surges (Bloomberg)

• A saga of a story about hacking crosswalks (yes) with deepfake audios from Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Muck (Wired).

• Iowa City’s free bus program is a resounding success, with ridership increasing by more than 700,000 riders and saving riders more than $3 million (Daily Iowan).

WeRide and Lenovo deepen partnership

Imagine my eyeballs when I read the goal was 200k AVs in five years. I thought the industry (except for Tesla) was taking a break from over-promising, but I am once again proven wrong. I need to start a tracker of grand promises and the deltas between PR and reality.

US Marines are testing AVs

The part of the beat that makes my eyes twitch a bit. The title of the article summarises it perfectly: "U.S. Marines Just Tested a Self-Driving Artillery Truck That Keeps Fighting Even When GPS Goes Dark”. Funnily enough, this is also what I would title my worst nightmare.

MOIA makes its way to Orlando

VW’s Moia is looking to operate 5,000 AVs in Orlando, Florida, for public transportation. The product itself is a toaster model (official term) that is designed to move multiple people at once. MOIA is partnering with Beep, a new-to-me provider of shared AV services based in Orlando.

Waymo starts mapping the streets of Portland

Portland—one of America’s friendlier walking and cycling cities—is next up on Waymo’s agenda. Known for its petite grid system, charming bike bus (if you haven’t seen the Zara Larson collab yet, you’re welcome), and wacky ways, Portland is an interesting choice for Waymo. I’ll be curious to see how communities react in Portland to the technology. Fun fact: Portland’s blocks are 1/4 the size of Houston’s… hence being one of America’s most walkable cities.

In other Waymo-related news, service in San Antonio, Texas, is currently paused after flooding in the city (SA Express News), and a human-operated Waymo drove into a crime scene in London (Futurism). The local cops gave us this beautiful line: “Oh my days, bruv... that’s a Waymo driverless taxi, y’know, the driverless ones”.

The more you know:

• Baidu’s AVs have landed in London to start testing (Zag Daily)

• Tesla’s Cybercabs are in production 🙃 (CNET)

Impact of road infrastructure types on isolation, mental health

“While research has shown a link between traffic-related exposures such as air pollution and noise and adverse mental health outcomes, few studies have looked at the role of road infrastructure itself in isolating communities and breaking down their social fabric, and how that might affect the mental health of people who live there. According to a new federally funded study focusing on New York City, researchers found that communities that were very isolated by roadways and traffic patterns tended to have more schizophrenia-related hospital visits, and this effect was independent from traffic-caused air pollution.”

How 30 Chinese cities are implementing AVs

“Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are diffusing in cities worldwide, propelled by expectations for enhanced safety and sustainability. This study examines urban innovation mechanisms across 30 pilot cities in China, analyzing AV experimentation activities, policy mixes, and emphasized innovation system functions using a novel dataset of 116 pilot projects and 881 policy documents. Combining qualitative content analysis and K-means clustering, we identify three city archetypes: Innovation Leaders, Specialized Developers, and Emerging Participants.”

Peer-reviewed policy analysis on AV development

“The last few years have seen significant developments in automated vehicle (AV) technologies and their commercialization. While unconstrained autonomous driving remains an aspiration, and progress in AV connection and system coordination has stalled, practical applications of AV technologies are expanding. Increasingly intelligent driver assistance systems and robotaxis are starting to substitute human labor. We provide updated policy recommendations for cities to best leverage and adapt to these developments.”

Some researchers in Germany want AVs to react to Elephants on the road

I’ll give ‘em an A+ plus for creativity.

“A team of researchers have unveiled a new benchmark for testing autonomous vehicles that subjects them to all sorts of “unseen” and truly random scenarios — such as an elephant lumbering across a city street.. It introduces heaps of so-called out-of-distribution scenarios into an open source simulator for AV research called CARLA, which is widely used in the industry. Some of the scenarios are as outlandish as crosswalk-abiding elephants, but others aren’t.”

Why AVs alone won’t solve traffic deaths

A genuinely excellent and level-headed opinion on AVs, traffic safety, and the need to focus on infrastructure. Highly recommend reading the whole thing.

“None of the above amounts to a case against Waymo, robotaxis, or autonomous vehicles. There’s no reason why more traditional solutions for improving America’s abysmal road safety statistics—including public transit investments and less car-centric planning—can’t coexist with driverless vehicles. But as governments consider legitimate questions about safety, liability, and labor dislocation, it’s worth being honest about the stakes.”

Welcoming our robotaxi overlords

Reminder: archive.is is a great website if you’re behind a paywall!

“About a century ago, when cars began invading urban areas en masse, many cities made a disastrous choice. They reconfigured themselves to favour vehicles over people. The extreme case is the US, which now devotes more space to parking each car than housing each person.. Cars don’t suit cities, and humans never got very good at driving them. The arrival of driverless vehicles gives cities a second chance to manage cars.”

Why are we still driving?

The NYTs has an hour-long interview about the end of driving as we know it. Full disclosure, it was just released, so I have yet to listen, but if you do, please share your thoughts!

Internships!

• [Seattle, WA - SDOT] Transit + mobility program interns

Full-time jobs!

• [London, UK - DfT Operator] Culture, Engagement and Inclusion Manager

• [London, UK - TfL] Change Project Manager

• I was at my favourite local cafe recently (shout out jolene), and one of the baristas put me down as ‘tiny dog regular’ for my order, and it made my day week month year life. I kept the order printout and it now lives on a bulletin board in my living room of sweet memories.

• ‘Tis the season for farmers’ markets, garden shops, and patio dinners with friends. I sadly don’t have much by way of content or recipes to share this week as I’m spending a shocking amount of time eating berries in parks, but I hope that wherever you are, the sun is starting to bring brightness to your days, too.

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah

If you’d like to support my work and this newsletter, please consider becoming a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition or making a donation.

This week, I would like to present peanut on her first bike ride (💖), we practised on Sunday and put it to the test this week during the London tube strike (more to share on this next week once we have some data to work with, but anecdotally, the bike lanes are bursting with people). She’s still learning, but overall was an excellent passenger.

I can’t wait for a summer of biking around with lil peanut and all the places we’ll go. Ok.. time for ze news!

UK publishes AV permitting scheme

The UK government unveiled the Automated Passenger Services (ASP) permit yesterday (see here), applicable for operations in England, Scotland and Wales. I have not had time to dig too deeply into the details, but I feel like this could be worth a whole special issue. Key call-outs initially include:

• The permit asks for additional, non-safety related data from operators vs. what was originally put in the Autonomous Vehicle Act in 2024.

• The UK government is establishing an APS Accessibility Advisory Panel to ensure programs support people with disabilities and ageing communities by advising companies.

• A review of last year’s public consultation has also been published here. Fascinating to see the guidance say that no initial permit fees should be leveraged here (if we compare this to micromobility in London, where operators like Lime and Forest heft up millions to individual boroughs on an annual basis).

California’s robotaxi usage grows 500% in 19 months

I may harp on about my criticisms of AVs, but the reality is that riders do seem to really like the product. The uptake speaks for itself. It makes me wish that we could invest similar levels of effort to make public transport as frictionless to use.

One thing this article drew my attention to is State Bill AB1777, which will go into effect in July. The bill requires all AVs to have a remote operator who can be contacted through a two-way communication system equipped in the vehicles. I think it’s sensible to have human support when vehicles need it, and would prefer that over the algorithm just making something up when it doesn’t have the answer.

Don’t fall for the robotaxi hype

Over in Bloomberg, transport historian Peter Norton speaks with David Zipper about how AV companies are following the same playbook auto OEMs used to make cities dependent on cars.

“When you have an opportunity to sell a new technological method, you have to reframe the status quo so that this tech actually makes sense. A century ago, that meant reframing streets as places for driving, which was a crazy notion in 1920. Now we’re encountering people like Elon Musk saying things like ‘if you’re against robot cars you’re for people getting killed.’ It’s an attempt to get us to misperceive robot cars as hyper-rational when in reality they reflect the human agendas of their business promoters.”

The more you know!

• The American Lung Association released their toxic air annual report, finding nearly 50% of American children live in areas with dangerous levels of air pollution (Inside Climate News)

• What happens when a small town loses a bus route? (BBC)

• Malta is going to trial an autonomous bus 😎 (with a designated driver on board at all times). I’m not not tempted to go see it in action (Malta Today)

Why Uber thinks investing in AVs will drive more rides across their platform

Funny that I’m linking a Streetsblog piece in the industry section, but here we are! After Uber announced their $10 billion investment in AV technology last week, there was some chatter that this investment would undermine its existing ride-hailing business. However, Uber says it’s not worried about including AVs as part of their offering, as it will actually drive a massive expansion in all app usage, not just robotaxis.

“Our network benefits from every incremental unit of supply added in a city. As supply increases, customers find more value because rides become more affordable with faster ETAs. This fact alone gives us considerable conviction that AVs (as a new form of supply) will expand — not shrink — our total addressable market.”

Tesla drivers are losing patience with false promises

I had not realised that Tesla has been promising FSD for twelve years. Sure, there’s been progress, but Tesla is nowhere near the lofty goals Muck likes to roam on about whenever given a mic. This article uncovers the Tesla owners suing the company over false claims.
“Tom LoSavio bought a Model S in 2017 and paid $8,000 on top of the over $100,000 luxury sedan to access what Musk claimed will eventually allow the car to drive itself. In his class action suit, LoSavio accused Tesla of misleading consumers with its false claims about self-driving capabilities and is calling for owners to be refunded. It’s just one of numerous ongoing cases filed by angry owners looking to hold Musk to his infamously unreliable word.”

To add fuel to this particular fire, Muck admitted that Teslas made pre-2023 will need hardware upgrades (new computers and cameras) to allow FSD (back-tracking on yet another promise). See coverage in Futurism and TechCrunch.

Tesla “expands” in Texas

What do you call a robotaxi expansion to new cities without any cars being made available on street? A press release. (Yes, I think I’m funny). But in all seriousness, it seems Tesla ‘launched’ one or two vehicles in Dallas and Houston, respectively and hoped it would garner positive press. Tesla held their Q1 earnings call on Wednesday, so it’s likely that they put out this release in an attempt to pump their earnings.

What do transportation engineers learn about induced demand?

“Induced travel is the new travel that materialises after expanding infrastructure, and accounting for it is essential for accurately describing the long-term benefits and environmental impacts of a project. However, engineers rarely account for induced travel during project planning and environmental review, perhaps owing in part to unfamiliarity with and skepticism about induced travel. [When assessing engingeering textbooks], three textbooks omitted the idea entirely, whereas the others offered only partial coverage. Beyond this, all textbooks placed a greater emphasis on accommodating demand rather than managing it. Textbooks also offered an asymmetric portrayal of how drivers adjust to traffic conditions. Overall, the engineering textbooks reviewed here leave students unprepared to understand induced travel or its implications.”

AVs and increased VMT and congestion

“Automated Vehicles (AVs) are rapidly transforming the transportation landscape. It is crucial to understand the impact of AVs on vehicle miles traveled (VMT), a key metric of travel behavior. Despite numerous systematic literature reviews, there is a lack of robust statistical analysis on this topic. The analysis reveals a 5.95% increase in VMT for shared and non-shared AVs combined. In summary, AV deployment is anticipated to lead to an overall increase in VMT, with a greater impact observed for non-shared AVs compared to shared AVs.”

AVs will kill London’s taxi industry

N.B. This piece is from the Spectator, a politically conservative magazine in the UK. The article references immigration in a way that offends me deeply, and I’m sharing this article so we know how people are holistically thinking about this technology (standing firmly in my disagreement with the author).

“If they can get Waymo to work as well on London’s old and peculiar road system as it does on the grid-based, multi-lane roads of modern American cities like Phoenix, then I will happily kiss goodbye to human-driven rides overnight. Waymo drives beautifully – smoothly, carefully, quickly – but never scarily or aggressively. It never takes its eye off the road to text, forces you to listen to music you don’t care for, or gives you the creeps. Once I’d been driven by a robot, I suddenly noticed how much worse almost every human driver was.”

How cities thrive when women lead the way

“But a minority of elected officials have demonstrated that opposition [sic: car-oriented designs] rarely reflects the true popularity of more inclusive urban transformation measures. In many cases, female leaders are spearheading change. Through their own experiences navigating the world as girls and women, as carers, and through decades of being invisible in the planning process, they often understand best that the status quo is not working.”

Internships!

• [Los Angeles, CA - Southern California Association of Governments] Internships galore! (Thank you Calli for sharing!)

• April 21st marked the beginning of Armenian Genocide Week, remembering the victims of the Armenian genocide of 1915, a series of massacres and starvation of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottomans. My friend Max has taught me a lot about Armenia’s history, and the beautiful country that still struggles for autonomy. I’d highly recommend watching There Was, There Was Not if you’d like to learn more.

• Over at the Hampstead Ladies Pond, swimming has hit its peak; we’re in the sweet spot where the water has warmed up, but the masses are still kept at bay. It’s the perfect time of year to pretend to be a mermaid, and I am cherishing my weekly swim with friends.

• I’m currently reading Swimming in the Dark, which has been described as Call Me By Your Name set in communist Poland… which is so far accurate. I’m surprised by how much I’m enjoying it, and am mentally prepared for the ending to ruin me.

• On a lighter note, I’ve been watching Rooster and absolutely loving it. Steve Carell is really the gem of all gems. Please tell me you’re also watching it, because I would like at least four more seasons.

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah

If you’d like to support my work and this newsletter, please consider becoming a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition or making a donation.

I have no big preamble this week, which feels very odd 😂. If you’re London-based, Matt Clark and I are hosting the next Mobility Meet-Up on May 7th. Join us for post-work bevvies in Bermondsey. You can sign up here to join!

Onto ze news!

DC’s Report on AVs

At long last, DC has released its hotly anticipated report on AVs. The American capital has held out on opening its streets to commercial AV service. DDOT (the local department of transportation) first issued a report examining how AVs are regulated across the US and plans to issue a second report later this summer detailing potential regulations to guide their implementation. For fellow wonks, this report is 150 pages long and serves a public service for local policy makers trying to wrap their heads around regulations.

Maryland stalls on AV legislation

This past week, AV legislation was on the agenda in Maryland. State senators didn’t pass legislation that would have allowed the commercial operation of AVs across the State, including in Baltimore, where Waymo has announced interest. Much of the opposition came from union and labour leaders.

When will Ontario see AVs roam provincial roads?

CBC reports on the current state of play for AV trials in Ontario, noting that Waymo has met with Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow (a champion of sustainable transport) to confirm their interest in bringing AVs to the city. They confirmed that they are applying to Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation program that allows the testing of AVs.

As gas prices rise, cities turn to public transport

As a person who is rarely ever in a vehicle and never owned one in my life, the increase in oil prices goes a bit over my head. But as countries around the world contend with shrinking oil reserves, cities are getting creative about how to alleviate the stress felt by individuals. Melbourne has made all local transport free for April, offering alternatives that may also help change long-term travel behaviours.

Polling unveils lukewarm attitudes towards AVs

This poll surveyed 2,000 Americans (which, with a population of 340 million people… lacks statistical significance). Regardless of that sample, 53% said they would not ride in a robotaxi, and 26% said they’re not currently considering it. One in three respondents says no amount of money would cause them to take a robotaxi ride.

The more you know!

• The European Disability Forum published its list of concrete proposals to improve accessibility in rail transport (EDF). Via Christine Link’s Newsletter, The Accessible Link.

• An interesting read about how ageing people who rely on driving don’t have a clear sense of what they will do when their eyesight gets worse (Carbon Upfront!)

• The Institute for Driverless Transport launches in the UK to ‘prepare for the consequences of autonomous vehicles’ (IDT)

Uber confirms $10 billion investment in AVs

Chump change, really. For companies that built their success on never owning an asset—never being responsible for repairs, insurance, covering gas prices—Uber and other ride-hailing companies are 180-ing their operations and paying heavily to do so. The cost of thousands of AVs, maintenance staff, warehouse and charging facilities, and more—in every city AVs operate—fundamentally changes the business model these companies have profited from.

It’s a winter wonderland for Waymo

No actual news on this one, but interesting to see this particular model in slushy Tahoe.

Over in London, Waymo starts testing autonomous driving

After months of mapping roads across the capital, Waymo has now entered its next phase: testing how well the tech works. They’ve turned on the automated driving tech and have 100 vehicles driving across the city with safety drivers monitoring how well the system works. Pending no major tech issues, the next hurdle in Waymo’s path to London is the central government finalising its approval process for commercial operations.

Tesla’s FSD approved for operations in the Netherlands

This is kind of a wonky one. With the Netherlands approving Tesla’s FSD program, the Netherlands can then bring it to the European Commission for Union-wide approval of the technology. Tesla and the Netherlands plan to bring this forward during the commission’s meeting in May.

In other completely unrelated news, Tesla had to disable FSD in more than 100k cars as drivers made illegal modifications to the program :) (Autoblog)

Wayve extends Series D, with new investment

This time its $60 million from AMD, Arm and Qualcomm. This builds on their $1.2 billion round announced in February this year.

The impact of the Paris Olympics on bike lane utilisation

“Major sporting events like the Olympics often catalyze urban mobility investments, yet their lasting impacts on transportation infrastructure remain understudied. This study assesses the effect of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on bicycle lane utilization, leveraging electric bike-sharing data from Lime and spatio-temporal econometric models. Results reveal a peak surge in bicycle kilometers traveled (BKT) on inter-competition links during peak Olympic days, driven by spectator mobility, though for post-Olympics the utilization exhibited no significant difference compared to “Cycling Games” Network. Policy implications stress integrating event corridors with long-term urban mobility plans to sustain usage and mitigate post-event fragility.”

NYC’s AV regulations are driving down the wrong side of the road

“Politicians who deny their constituents a demonstrably safer technology to protect a dying taxi business are just making Red Flag Rules via press release. And companies that resist oversight, delay data submissions, and redact crash reports are guaranteeing that the next serious accident shuts down every autonomous vehicle on American roads.”

• This past weekend, I celebrated a friend’s 40th birthday and 400 days of keeping up with my french (attempting to maintain some semblance of fluency after studying immersion in high school). A weekend for 4s!

• This past weekend, I traded my usual ladies pond swim for the west reservoir, which is a bit sportier but equally refreshing. Rob Delaney was there, as the space is co-ed.

• Peanut got her first ever groom (😭😭😭) and somehow she got even cuter.

• I’ve started watching Margot’s Got Money Troubles and can not bring myself to start the new season of Euphoria after the reviews panned it. Tragic. If you’re watching it, let me know if it’s worth it…..

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah

If you’d like to support my work and this newsletter, please consider becoming a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition or making a donation.

What a week we’ve had in the world. Grateful for a ceasefire, heartbroken for Lebanon. Confused and angry that we allow anybody who says they want to wipe out an entire civilisation to lead any country, let alone one with known nuclear weapons. I hope that wherever you are, you are safe, able to find silver linings, and taking action where you can.

For now, I’m gonna write about the transportation news, which continues to be abundant. When I started this newsletter almost eight years ago (our birthday is in June!), there was very little actual news about AVs. However, over the past two years, content has steadily grown. Keeps me busy!

New York City has a rare opportunity to shape AV implementation

This article details how NYC has a window of opportunity to shape how AVs are implemented, looking at the good, bad and ugly outcomes that would come based on what local policies are introduced. It comes as Waymo’s permit to test in NYC comes to an end without renewal. It’s a good read and doubles down on the wrongful citation of NHTSA data.

“The industry’s foundational claim — that humans cause 94 percent of crashes — has long been debunked. National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy herself called that claim “not accurate” and “often mis-cited” — and it’s so widely misused that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration removed it from its own materials.”

See also: Waymo’s permit to test AVs in NYC has ended (The City), and how across the State of New York, the debate about the ‘inevitability’ of AVs begins (City and State).

The financial cost of traffic-related pedestrian deaths

(N.B. The human cost of losing any loved one is enough. I hate that we need an economic argument for why pedestrians dying is a bad thing.. It is a very bad thing in and of itself).

The article shared findings from GHSA’s analysis that estimate pedestrian deaths in the first half of 2025 cost the US economy $40 billion in direct and indirect costs. Direct costs include medical care, legal costs, emergency services, and property damage. Indirect costs include the average years a pedestrian loses when they’re killed before their time—meaning the money a person who would have otherwise participated in the economy would have earned in their lifetime.

Redesigning the steering wheel for AVs

FastCo asked companies to consider the ethical implications of steering wheels in AVs. A British firm, MAP Project Office, developed a solution that is a dial on the dashboard that lets passengers decide how much they want their car to prioritise their own safety over that of other people.

“There are four options: “Protectionist,” where the car protects the passenger at all costs; “humanist,” where the car tries to reduce the total amount of injury and save the most number of people; “altruistic,” where the car prioritizes pedestrians above its occupants; and “random,” where the car chooses one of the options and removes the decision-making power from the passenger altogether.”

Wayve wants to add AV tech to every vehicle

Time Magazine has a deep dive on London-based Wayve, and their plan to bring autonomy to as many cars as possible. Alex Kendall, Wayve’s Founder and CEO, talks about retrofitting modern vehicles to have partial autonomy, and about partnering with Uber on a robotaxi model.

Waymo Corner

• A Waymo in San Antonio had to be saved after driving into a flooded crossing (News4SA)

• Waymo launches new service in Nashville, in partnership with Lyft (Axios)

• A Waymo in LA tried to pick up a rider by driving through a drive-thru in the wrong direction (Yahoo)

• Waymo is partnering with Waze to help cities identify potholes (The Verge)

MOIA and Uber begin testing autonomous microbuses in LA

Filed under: love to see a vehicle that could enable shared trips. Testing will start soon with a fleet of 10 ID. Buzz (toaster) vehicles. An exec for MOIA in America, Paul DeLong, said LA is a natural market to introduce AVs, “given its long history of shaping car culture”. Which made me laugh (and want to sob).

Verne, Uber and Pony.ai launch small potatoes AV service in Croatia

Somewhere in Croatia, a Ricky Bobby is boasting that “if you’re not first, you’re last”. However, I’m not sure this launch is particularly interesting other than being the first commercial service in Europe. Given that no major media outlet picked up the story, I think most are in agreement. There are scant to no details about the service—no fleet size, no clear service area.

The more you know:

• Elon Muck continues to falsify the promise of Tesla’s FSD program (Electrek)

• Zoox is officially testing in LA (LA Business)

Measuring traffic emissions, block by block

“In a study focused on New York City, MIT researchers have shown that existing sensors and mobile data can be used to generate a near real-time, high-resolution picture of auto emissions, which could be used to develop local transportation and decarbonization policies.”

Do food delivery drivers speed?

“This study examines factors that contribute to driver speed choices among app-based food delivery drivers in the United States. Transportation incidents are the leading cause of death at work. Speed is a factor in one-third of fatal crashes. Yet, limited information is available about factors influencing drivers’ decisions to speed in an occupational and app-based driving environment.. Within the work domain, the desire to achieve high on-time delivery rates and please customers who gave large tips influenced some drivers’ speed decisions. However, ongoing driver record checks, company monitoring of driver speed, and payment by elements of time rather than per delivery influenced some drivers to not speed.”

What’s holding back the AV industry?

Spoiler alert: infrastructure and permitting (my actual fav topic!!)

“The last AV cycle didn’t stall because the technology failed or capital dried up. It stalled because scaling required solving harder, real-world problems. Now that the software is ready, the bottlenecks are land, power and permitting. Getting those three aligned makes developing self-driving technology look easy by comparison.”

Full-time jobs!

• [New York City, US - TYLin] Senior Transportation Planner (thanks Emily for sharing!! The role is focused on our favourite topic: vision zero)

• Spring has SPRUNG in London, and it is finally nice enough out to see people lounging in the parks, drinking iced coffees, and beaming with sunshine-induced joy. Peanut has taken to hopping her way through the parks, smelling the daisies as she goes.

• Cinema corner: I saw Hoppers, Project Hail Mary, and The Drama over the course of the last week. All very different 😂. I would recommend both Hoppers and Project Hail Mary wholeheartedly (Hoppers especially for the anti-highway plotline). The Drama….. I could have lived without seeing. I thought some of the points made in this review by The Guardian were very apt (warning: review has spoilers).

• I also finished reading Tom Lake, which was definitely cute. Kind of romcom-ish? Makes me want to go visit a cherry orchard in Northern Michigan.

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah

If you’d like to support my work and this newsletter, please consider becoming a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition or making a donation.

This past Tuesday was Trans Day of Visibility, something that seems to be more vital with every passing year. There are a few things I think we can all do to show support for trans people, including:

• First and foremost: learn how to be a good ally. How we treat each other makes a world of difference, and some basic education on addressing trans folks, understanding the difference between sex and gender, and researching common mistakes people make can all help create more caring and inclusive environments wherever you are (see resources from the Trevor Project here).

• Donate to local trans advocacy orgs. In the UK, I like orgs such as Mermaids (focused on support for trans children and their families), and Gendered Intelligence.

• Tell your representatives that you support trans people and want them to vote in favour of dignity for all people. In the UK, there’s Write To Them, in the US, the ACLU has a resource for writing to representatives, and in Canada, Citizens for Public Justice has a guide for contacting your MP :)

• And finally, limiting your intake of Harry Potter content (I know, devastating), as she who shall not be named does use the money she earns from this content to fuel anti-trans campaigns. And that’s a big nope from me.

Also wishing subscribers who celebrate a happy passover and Easter. Ok, time for some news!

Wuhan’s AV service glitches amidst outage

On Tuesday, more than a hundred Baidu robotaxis stalled mid-traffic after a “system malfunction”. In one instant, it’s clear that the sudden outage resulted in a highway collision. Passengers in the vehicles themselves were also left stranded on highways, without obvious alternatives for their trip.

I like this quote from Jack Stilgoe, Professor of Science and Technology Policy at UCL: while AVs "may be safer on average" than human drivers, this incident showed it could "still go wrong in completely new ways". See also: NYT (which called this embarrassing), and Wired.

Waymo sets its sights on Vancouver

Vancouver—another city trying to reduce car usage as much as humanly possible and make 2/3 of trips car-free by 2030—is the latest urban area on Waymo’s hit list. It’s likely a wee-ways out as there are federal requirements that Waymo must meet first, and it hasn’t secured federal exemptions.

Budapest begins AV trials

Not much news here, but Hungary is testing two AVs around a route near Buda Castle. László Palkovics, the government commissioner responsible for artificial intelligence, said that if these cars can operate in the Castle and its surroundings, then “there is no place in the world where they could not.” Bold!

Kazakhstan looks to trial AVs

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Digital Development will partner with Yandex and inDrive to trial vehicles in Almaty, Astana and Kosshy by the end of this year. Vehicles will include safety drivers and operate within specific areas of each city.

Singapore to launch robotaxi service with Grab and WeRide

An eleven vehicle fleet will operate along two approved routes, each with multiple pre-defined stops, in Singapore’s Punggol neighbourhood.

Respite: How Paris redesigned itself around bikes—not cars

“As part of the transformation on streets, Hidalgo has been adept at choosing her messages carefully. “She’s not talking about bicycle lanes,” says Stein van Oosteren, a local bike advocate. “She’s talking about making sure that 10-year-old children can go to school safely without bothering their parents. She’s talking about a different city. She has the intelligence not to talk about technical things. She’s talking about livability.”

Waymo plans to bring AV tech to private cars

Filed under: what we always knew to be true. The future of AVs will not result in fewer cars or fewer rides. It will have more cars, induce more trips, and inevitably continue our over-reliance on the automobile. (See also this article about Waymo’s skyrocketing ridership).

Dmitri Dolgov, the lesser-in-the-news co-CEO of Waymo, noted that a personal car equipped with Waymo's AI driver would be more ideal in places where it would not be commercially viable to run a ride-hailing service in less dense regions. No word on the cost of this technology and how rural communities will even afford it.

See also: A short n sweet update about Waymo’s Tokyo operations (Automotive World)

How an Austin school district tried to help train Waymos, and failed

Wired looks at how, despite much effort from many parties, Waymo’s vehicle fleet doesn’t learn from its mistakes. In particular, they look at Waymos passing school buses, and demonstrate how, after workshops, trials, recalls, and software updates, the vehicles still struggle to understand this simple road rule.

From an official with the school’s police department: “The data we collected from the beginning of the school year to the end of the semester shows that about 98 percent of people that receive one violation do not receive another. That tells us that the person is learning, but it does not appear the Waymo automated driver system is learning through its software updates, its recall, what have you, because we are still having violations.”

Remote assistance for AV service

TechCrunch has an entire article about how AV companies won’t share how often their vehicles need remote assistance. A Senator from Massachusetts asked seven AV companies in the US—Aurora, May Mobility, Motional, Nuro, Tesla, Waymo, and Zoox—to share how often remote assistance is needed for their operations. Not a single company shared this data. You’d hope that when testing such new and high-risk technology on public roads, public offices would be able to gather necessary data to feel good about their decisions to permit for-profit businesses to operate safely.

As part of the disclosure, Tesla acknowledged for the first time that it uses remote assistance for their operations (Wired).

Multi-scale analysis of pedestrian crossing distance

A big round of applause for AFTR reader (and friend!) Marcel for publishing this research. “Crossing distance is considered a factor in both pedestrian safety and behavior. However, it has seldom been quantified within or across entire cities or related to walking outcomes. Combining data encoded in OpenStreetMap and drawn from high-resolution satellite imagery, we measured formal pedestrian crossings throughout a dense European city (Paris [France]), a dense American city (San Francisco [CA]), and a less-dense, more car-centric American city (Irvine [CA]).. By overlaying recent pedestrian–vehicle collisions on these novel data sets we found that longer crossing distance correlated with increased likelihood of collisions, raising the salience of traffic-calming interventions.”

Why London will be the next big test for AVs

“London has very successfully been getting rid of cars on its streets,” said Jack Stilgoe, A University College London professor who sits on a UK government AV advisory panel. The only thing worse for congestion than a car with one person in it, he noted, is a car with no one at all.”

Internships!

• [US, Remote - Streetsblog] Internships

Full-time roles!

• [Sante Fe, New Mexico - NMDOT] Multimodal Transportation Planner (thanks to Bianca for sharing!! They have internships too!!)

• I read this piece on childhood education and AI, and about teachers having concerns that children are losing basic thinking skills—including spelling, creativity, writing, and problem solving—due to the pervasive use of AI. Safe to say it scares me quite a bit, and makes me terrified about how future generations will lead.

• Friends and I had dinner at Little Georgia this past weekend, and all I have to say is if you love cheese and carbs, you will love Georgian food. Whatever corner of the world you’re in, Georgian food is perfect for a slightly chillier day that requires big flavours and comfort.

• It’s full-swing mini egg season in the UK, which means I'm well on my way towards turning into a mini egg myself. My favourite time of year.

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah

If you’d like to support my work and this newsletter, please consider becoming a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition or making a donation.

The past two weeks have been busy, and thus, there was no newsletter last week. On Thursday, I got to speak to a room full of AV Believers™️ , which is always fun. I heard private sector representatives say that regulators need to be ready for AVs to fail and that regulators shouldn’t stifle innovation because there are ‘hiccups’ (without specifying what failures or hiccups should be acceptable or to what degree).

Another highlight was people talking about AVs being important for connectivity, and that induced demand in the name of connection is worth it. What wasn’t discussed was how every other mode of transportation also connects people… the clearest example I see of this is on the bus in london when a parent boards with a pram (british for stroller / buggy / child-mobile) and the whole bus re-orients itself around one small human and a parent. Sometimes this happens without folks saying a single word, other times the whole bus emerges in sweet coos. Social connectivity is so important for society, and I’d argue an AV will further isolate us from strangers and the unknown compared to other modes… but that’s just me.

Because we are covering two weeks of content, there! are! links! galore!

Being in a Waymo during an anti-robot attack

The NYTs has a great long read about the experience passengers undergo when the public wants to bash their vehicle. “Since autonomous cars started roaming San Francisco streets almost four years ago, they have elicited an array of reactions from humans, including angry protests against the vehicles. That has created an unexpected hazard for passengers of self-driving cars all around the city: being stuck inside the vehicle during an anti-robot rant.”

UK launching guidance on designing safer streets for women and girls

For the first time, UK councils will receive guidance on how to create streets that are safer for women and girls. The guidance will be published later this year, and takes learnings from Spain, Sweden and other countries that have implemented successful policies and infrastructure to make walking safer. This includes women asking bus drivers to drop them off between stops after dark.

How traffic safety improvements die by popular vote

“When a city proposes narrowing a street to reduce speeding, neighbours show up to meetings and call it an “attack on drivers.” When a protected bike lane is added to a corridor with a history of fatal crashes, it gets removed after community complaints…Safety improvements frequently die by popular vote and public pressure. Americans, given the choice between their personal convenience and other people’s safety, have repeatedly chosen convenience.”

The more you know!

• California regulators confirm Tesla doesn’t have active robotaxi operations in the State (Electrek)

• The high cost of car ownership (NYTs)

• Bike and walking trails have lost hundreds of millions of dollars of funding under Trump (Stateline)

Waymo won’t go where Americans need them most

Did I ever think I’d strongly agree with the website Motor1.com? No. However, they wrote an interesting article about why Waymo is only interested in urban transport, and how rural areas that have a much stronger use case for the technology are being left behind. The article also features a cute graphic of a Waymo in a corn field.

NYTs interviews Waymo’s CEO

And it’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect. I find this quote about operating in NYC interesting, because yes, what do you expect?

“New York is complicated for the same things that we have seen in San Francisco, which is there’s a lot of congestion. There’s pedestrians, there’s cyclists, there’s jaywalkers, there is double-parked cars, there’s bike lanes. And sometimes there’s mounds of snow.”

NYC is a great city because of the hustle and bustle. The pedestrians and jaywalkers, and cyclists and bike lanes make the city what it is. As mentioned above, there are a lot of rural communities where it would be easier to operate, but Waymo wants scale and visibility. And alas, corn fields ain’t cutting it.

Here are some of Waymo’s recent hiccups :)

• A woman in Phoenix whose Waymo took a dangerous turn, and the video went (semi) viral (Motor1)

• A Waymo in San Antonio drove into an active fire scene (Fox)

Tesla influencers are leaving the cult (!)

That’s it. That’s the whole tweet.

Uber’s big, bigger, biggest bet on AVs

• NVIDIA: Uber is partnering with NVIDIA to power their robotaxi operations in 28 cities by next year. Using NVIDIA’s autonomous driving software, they will start with services in LA and SF in 2027, before reaching 28 cities globally by ​2028. Related: (1) NVIDIA has China’s BYD and Geely will start using their platform too (The Verge), and (2) NVIDIA also announced a partnership with Bolt (Zag Daily).

• Rivian: Uber could invest up to $1.25 billion in Rivian through 2031, starting with an initial purchase of 10,000 Rivian robotaxis (and potentially scaling up to 40,000 vehicles). The partnership will start in San Francisco and Miami in 2028 (yes, two years away lol), with the possibility of expanding to 25 cities by 2031. Here’s the Uber press release if you want to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth.

• Motional: Smaller scale, but Motional’s Las Vegas robotaxis are now on the Uber platform. Motional still uses safety drivers for its operations.

A look into Waymo’s reliance on first responders

TechCrunch has a piece about how Waymo relies on first responders during incidents to move their vehicles and ensure potential blockages are resolved quickly. San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management noted that first responders have become default roadside assistance for Waymo, and that the current model is untenable. I can imagine Waymo also agrees with this statement, but will have to figure out how they can find a readily available cohort of trustworthy people to assist when the ‘edge cases’ emerge.

Uber looks to become the first robotaxi provider in Europe

With a little help from their friends at Pony AI and Verne. Colour me surprised that the trial will take place in Croatia, but this is the home of Verne. Verne will manage the fleet of vehicles (provided by Pony AI), while Uber will provide the commercial platform for the service. Verne spun out of the auto OEM Rimac. More here about Rimac from Autocar, and more about the deal in Bloomberg.

Cruise GM brings back the AV

GM is bringing back AVs, but not the robotaxi variety. Instead, it’s one they hope you will buy. They plan to launch a test fleet of 200 AVs in California and Michigan that will operate without input from the driver, however all vehicles will have human drivers behind the wheel. The plan is to offer the system for public sale by 2028. Oh joy.

The more you know!

• Zoox to bring their toaster AV to Austin and Miami later this year (CNBC)

• Why making long-haul freight trucks drive themselves is only half the battle (The Verge)

• Tesla’s ‘Full Self Driving’ program is on the verge of a recall (The Verge), specifically around performance in poor weather conditions (WSJ)

• Waymo CEO wants you to know AVs will create jobs too (Fortune)

• Addison Lee wants to see a minimum price for London AVs (The FT)

• WeRide plans expansions in Hong Kong and Singapore (SCMP)

Modelling car dependence for short trips

This research demonstrates how car ownership is the strongest predictor of car use even for 15-minute travel, and that short trips can help to reduce car dependency. People living in less urbanised areas tend to use cars more, and the presence of children in households increases the frequency of car use.

Autonomous mobility in African cities

“In the narrow lanes of informal settlements in African cities, autonomous mobility might emerge differently than anticipated in other parts of the world. Reflecting on emerging mobility services in Kampala and Nairobi, Ibrahim Mubiru proposes how human-centred design can help informal settlements to prepare for the arrival of autonomous transport.”

My Tesla worked perfectly until it crashed

“We are asking humans to supervise systems designed to make supervision feel pointless. A machine that constantly fails keeps you sharp. A machine that works perfectly needs no oversight. But a machine that works almost perfectly? That’s where the danger lies. After a few hours of flawless performance, research shows, drivers are prone to start overtrusting self-driving systems. After a month of using adaptive cruise control, drivers were more than six times as likely to look at their phone, according to one study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.”

The more you know!

• A piece from the Globe and Mail about using a Waymo in Phoenix, and how the vehicle ‘seemed to know the rules, but didn’t quite understand them’ (G&M)

• This time, the hype around AVs feels real (even if I dislike the sentiment, I do also agree with it) (WSJ)

• The Washington Post’s editorial board writes a whiny op-ed about how DDOT is dragging its feet on AVs, without actually arguing what good they will do. I read this from the perspective of a kid crying over the shiny toy everybody else has. (WaPo)

• How AVs will clog streets with traffic (Futurism), and we’re overdue for some AV backlash (Futurism)

• The Guardian has an op-ed about riding in a Wayve AV in London that hits on all the usual talking points (scary at first, then completely unremarkable, wow!) (The Guardian)

• Last weekend Peanut celebrated her first Eid, which was very cute (we made a gluten-free chocolate cake with whipped cream, pistachios, and pomegranate seeds). It was very cute and so nice to gather around a beautiful meal with friends.

• I also went to a lecture with Elif Shafak, which was so beautiful. She is a political scientist and fiction writer, and spoke about how storytelling is important for our collective understanding of the world and each other. Also on the book front, I read The Coin and really did not like it. But it was a fast read, and for that I am grateful.

• Here’s an interesting read sent to me by my friend Kimee (hi!) from Casey Johnston (who writes about women becoming swole / diet culture / the trap of physical bodies), and in a recent newsletter, she takes aim at the structural barriers to a healthy life in America (including access to nutritious food and active transport). I really liked this pull quote:

  “For access to active transport to be equitable, it needs to be systematically encouraged at the scale of daily life—for instance, it should not be faster, easier, safer, or overall cheaper to drive 30 minutes away to get groceries than to walk down the street to a local store with your granny cart.”

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah

If you’d like to support my work and this newsletter, please consider becoming a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition or making a donation.

I had a great time on Wednesday moderating a panel about what local governments need to consider when bringing AVs to their city’s streets. If you missed it, you can find a recording of the event here. I’m continuing my speaking tour next week, and I’ll be speaking at the European AV Summit. Let me know if you’ll be there!

I wrote today’s entire newsletter with Peanut sat curled up on my lap. A blessing. There’s a ton of news this week, so I’ve got a combo of longer thoughts and bullet points with quick hits. On y va!

How Waymo is draining public resources

I think this article does a good job of articulating how public agencies are currently expected to support AV robotaxi trials, but it lacks execution in actually scoping the cost this is having on the agencies themselves. It’d be interesting to look at how city transit agencies across the US are working together to understand shared experiences of supporting these trials while under-resourced in just about every way.

Inc. also covered the topic. They include a quote from a transit operator who was blocked by Waymos and called their help line for support, stating that: “Waymo contacted and was ZERO help.” Big yikes. Another piece of coverage from Futurism is here too, discussing how first responders feel like unpaid, roadside assistance workers for confused Waymos.

Global cities get gold stars for decreasing air pollution

Switching things up by sounding optimistic lol. 19 global cities—including London, Beijing and San Francisco—have slashed their levels of air pollutants by more than 20%. What led to these results? Cycle lanes, uptake of electric cars and restrictions on polluting vehicles.

NY’s robotaxi rollout on hold over insurance

Very interesting read from the NYTs about how two State policies (one to reduce car insurance costs, the other to allow robotaxis) became intertwined.

“Pulling in that [labour] union support could help Ms. Hochul as she faces off with a powerful group of trial lawyers, street-safety advocates and state lawmakers, all of whom are either sceptical of the governor’s claims that the changes would save the average driver money or worried about depriving crash victims of compensation for their injuries.”

Streetsblog has an article against Hochul’s proposal, instead advocating for insurance reforms in NY State that move towards a pay-per-mile model, which would cut costs and reduce traffic violence. The idea being that insurers would define premiums based on how many miles motorists actually travel.

How blind commuters navigate NYC’s streets and subways

Newsletter bestie John Surico is back with another piece in Bloomberg, this one on a very important topic: how do visually impaired NYCers traverse their city? He follows the commute of Sharon McLennon Wier and discusses the challenges she faces every day. John also outlines what works well elsewhere in the world.

“Then there’s Marburg, Germany, otherwise known as Blindenstadt, or “Blind City,” where traffic lights beep, pavements have bumps, and many buildings feature tactile maps of their floor plans.”

Five years on, what Phoenix’s Mayor thinks about being Waymo’s test bed

And the intro says everything you need to know: “Mayor Kate Gallego talks about working with Waymo, redesigning cities for autonomous vehicles, and why robotaxis may reshape everything from parking to public transit.”

Why must we continue to centre any motor vehicle in the design of our cities? For a brief moment in the early 2010s, it felt like maybe just maybe we were ready to embrace designing cities around actual human beings. But we’re sliding right back into the same line of thinking that got us into this mess in the first place (car dependence and letting private auto OEMs shape urban life).

The more you know:

• Waymo has approval to test its robotaxis in Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

• Did you know that rail transit in the US hasn’t grown in line with population growth? Yonah Freemark adds data to back up what many already anecdotally know to be true (Urban Institute)

A week of partnerships for Uber

This week, Uber announced partnerships with Wayve and Nissan to bring robotaxis to Tokyo (Reuters), as well as a partnership with Zoox starting in Las Vegas with hopes of launching in LA next year (Bloomberg). The Zoox partnership will be in their toaster-esque vehicle.

Zoox’s big week

Is everybody taking Waymo’s approach of flooding the media when they have news? NHTSA is asking the general public to provide comments on Zoox’s toaster robotaxi model (The Independent). Zoox also announced this week that it is starting to test in Dallas and Phoenix (Autoweek).

How are robotaxis disrupting traditional ride-hailing?

This deep dive from Quartz looks at the impact robotaxis might be having on Uber and Lyft drivers across the US. Still too early for the ol’ causation vs. correlation debate, but the findings are interesting.
”In the five metro areas where robotaxis currently operate that Gridwise analyzed, drivers completed 5.3% fewer trips per hour in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared with the same period a year earlier. Nationwide, that figure was only 2.6%. Driver utilization, the share of online time spent actually ferrying passengers, dropped 2.5% in those same cities with AVs versus 2.1% nationally.”

The more you know:

• Nuro is testing its technology in Tokyo (TechCrunch)

• Lucid unveils a two-seater AV concept design with no steering wheel or pedals (Reuters), and Tesla unveils the same thing (lol) at the LA motor show (WSJ)

• NVIDIA’s Head of Autonomous Driving details how they will beat Waymo and Tesla (The Verge)

• Technical read from Wayve about scaling embodied AI for autonomous driving (Tangram Vision)

Adjusted transit accessibility index

“This study introduces the adjusted transit accessibility index (ATAI), a proximity-normalized public transit accessibility measure that isolates public transit system performance from the impacts of land use and geography. The ATAI utilizes a residual modeling framework to quantify the difference between observed public transit access and a regional benchmark predicted by a baseline mode, such as the automobile.. The results show that our methodology highlights over- and underserved areas that are not identified by classical public transit accessibility metrics, and that our methodology successfully disentangles public transit performance from the strong spatial dependence that classical accessibility metrics exhibit.”

How many Waymos is too many Waymos?

“Roughly 75% of Waymo rides are with single or no passengers, and about 44% of miles driven are with empty cars, when vehicles are repositioning or traveling to pick up passengers. Waymos have also started using parking spaces, making parking that much more challenging for drivers. The more robotaxis on the road, the more these challenges will compound.”

Are AVs headed for the same political divide as EVs?

“The risks of automated vehicles are now drawing increased attention on Capitol Hill. It may not be long before the technology becomes as politically charged as electric vehicles. Not because of campaign rhetoric, but because questions about safety, job losses, investment pressure, and national security are colliding. The debate is shifting from whether the technology works to whether the public and policymakers are willing to trust it.”

• On Friday, I ventured to Witness for the Prosecution, an Agatha Christie play where my friend and I got to sit on the Jury. We sadly did not correctly charge the defendant lol, but it was a very fun experience. 20/10 recommend.

• Last night, my friend Benny and I went to members’ night at the Tate, which was so cool. It was my first time going to a members’ night event, and we got to go cocktail tasting, listen to live music, and bop around the Tate. We went to Agora after, which I am going to say is very over-rated!!!! Given the daily queues, I expected something slightly more magical.

• My friend Max has produced a podcast about Palestinians in Paraguay. The episode sheds light on how Palestinians were tricked and forced into boarding planes from Palestine and being abandoned in Paraguay, a country many had never heard of. Give it a listen.

• Finally, I’ve been reading and loving (! pun-intended !) The Forty Rules of Love is about the budding relationship between Rumi and Shams of Tabriz. Feels like a perfect read over Ramadan, regardless of your religious inclinations. Highly recommend.

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah

If you’d like to support my work and this newsletter, please consider becoming a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition or making a donation.

To start, the world is increasingly more broken it seems with each passing week. I am once again devastated by the onslaught of devastating news. I hope that wherever you and your family are, you are safe. That you can protest and act in solidarity without fear. It’s easy to be overwhelmed, but I hope you keep both eyes wide open right now.

Secondly, as a reminder, I have two upcoming speaking engagements if you’d like join:

1. Next week, I’m moderating a webinar with Steve Rooney, with Arthur Kay (TfL Board, UCL) and Erin McCurry (SAE Industry Technology, Ex-NHTSA and May Mobility). You can register here.

2. The week after, I’ll be speaking at the European AV Summit for a fireside chat discussing how (and if..) we can create transparency for public acceptance of AVs. I’ll be speaking alongside Lukas Neckermann, Meera Naran MBE, and Roy Uhlmann.

Hope to catch some of you there. As for the news, there is an opinion article from Vox that had me 👏👏👏 the entire time I read it. If you read one thing this week, make it that.

Labour advocates try to halt the spread of AVs

As Minnesota seeks to introduce new bills that would allow for the commercial operation of AVs, labour advocates from across the state want lawmakers to slow their roll until the case for AVs is proven. Waymo is currently testing its vehicles (with drivers) in Minneapolis. Advocates and some Democratic lawmakers are asking for the state to introduce an advisory board to complete a study on AVs and develop a permit process before introducing the tech (both of which I think are reasonable).

Cambridge continues to lead on autonomous buses

Cambridge has approved plans to extend their existing trial of autonomous buses through June 2028. The council has a goal of deploying the vehicles onto Cambridge’s busway routes. The current trial involves 15-seater buses serving an industrial campus in the city. All vehicles have a safety driver on board.

Mapping the economic toll of highways

A new report looked at the US’ highways in 142 cities, and the 66k acres of land dedicated to highways. According to the research, this land accounts for more than half a trillion dollars in development potential and $5.2 billion in foregone property tax revenue every year. In cities like Dallas, Oakland, and Chicago, pulling down highways and developing the land could result in over $23 billion a year in additional property taxes.

San Francisco Supervisors question Waymo over December blackout

SF Supervisors finally had an opportunity to question Waymo about why 1,500 of their vehicles stalled during a power blackout last December. Waymo apologised, but noted that they still expected first responders to help move stranded vehicles. In SF, Waymo has trained 1,000 first responders to manually take over robotaxis, which is pretty insane as a status quo approach to a crisis. See also CBS News coverage.

The more you know:

• Austin to get new light-rail service (Smart Cities Dive)

• Across the EU, 60% of city buses are already electric and ahead of track to reach 100% by 2035 (Sustainable Bus)

• Virginia introduces a bill that would allow for commercial services (Axois)

British start-up Oxa raises $103 million

Led by Nvidia and the UK’s National Wealth Fund. Oxa takes a universal autonomy approach to development. This is sadly a fraction of the $1.2 billion raised by Wayve, or the $16 billion raised by Waymo.

A Waymo in Austin temporarily blocked an ambulance

Before the incident took place, a Waymo vehicle was called to the scene of a mass shooting in Austin and arrived around the same time as first responders. In an unlucky moment, the Waymo turned down the street before realising it needed to abort and attempting a u-turn, and then realising that there was an ambulance blocking that path. The vehicle stalled, but first responders were still able to arrive within 57 seconds of the call coming in. The first responders noted that the Waymo did stall, but that it also didn’t impact the outcome for the victims.

Related(ish), Waymo’s in Culver City keep stalling while attempting right turns at a busy intersection (Fox11 … sorry).

Outcomes of free public transit programs

“Eliminating the cost of public transportation for users can increase the use of public transportation, increase physical activity, and improve social connectedness. These improvements seem to yield greater impacts for racial and ethnic minorities, older adults, and other vulnerable populations. Future studies should assess the long-term impacts of fare-free public transit (FFPT) on chronic disease and other health outcomes.”

Americans don’t just fear AV crashes — they fear job loss

“Among respondents, about 85% said widespread use of driverless cars [sic] would lead to job losses for ride-hailing, ridesharing and delivery drivers. More than 46% said driverless cars would increase the income gap between higher- and lower-income Americans (compared with about 6% who thought it would decrease income gaps). And more than 62% said they probably or definitely would not want to ride in a driverless vehicle.”

The biggest drawback of AVs [read of the week!!]

“But some of the AV haters have a point. Everything we know today about American urban planning mistakes of the last century points us to a need to drive less, not more. One of the best things we could do to reduce car fatalities, benefit the environment (even after we all switch to EVs), and make our communities more liveable is to become less car-dependent. But driverless cars, if left unmitigated, could easily lock us into a future that is even more dominated by cars.”

Related: AVs will super-charge VMT (Streetsblog)

Internships!

• [York, UK - Active Travel England] Multiple internships available! Deadline to apply is this Sunday!

• This past weekend, peanut and I ventured to a collection of North London’s finest parks: Hampstead Heath, Abney Park Cemetery, Clissold Park, and our local, Butterfield Green. She is excellent off lead, which I am very grateful for. We are working on not being afraid of other dogs and toddlers, lol.

• I finally finished a book (I read five in January, and almost one in February lol). My most recent read was Cat Among the Pigeons (continuing with my Agatha Christie moment). I really enjoyed it, and think it’s one of my favourites so far.

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah

If you’d like to support my work and this newsletter, please consider becoming a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition or making a donation.

On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of joining some very cool mobility friends at LSE to discuss the future of AVs in London. The general discussion skewed pessimistic (😬), and you can read a version of my opening statement here. And as the title in the picture below hints, I’ve begun taking on consulting clients under the brand of this newsletter (💖). More details on that to come in a later newsletter, but if you’d be interested in working together, please reach out.

And with that, we’ve got the news and peanut to discuss :)

Oxford Street approved for pedestrianisation

London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, has approved the proposal to remove traffic from Oxford Street between Great Portland Street and Orchard Street, as early as this September. I can’t imagine the ripple effects this will have once implemented, and I can’t wait to see it come to fruition.

A look into remote AV support workers

Wired has a deep dive about the remote workers that companies like Waymo use to support their fleet’s operations. While I understand the current concerns around the human support workers, I also think they are a responsible addition to AV operations at this stage of development. When companies are testing within the public realm—using us mere mortals as guinea pigs, whether we like it or not—having a human somewhere monitoring the vehicle’s behaviour is not necessarily a bad thing. Shit gets tricky when we try to assign blame when something goes wrong (but this is going to remain difficult for a while, given how many manufacturers, operators, remote assistance teams, etc., currently exist in an unconsolidated market).

PS. Waymo published some information (not all!) about their Remote Assistance program in November 2025. Perhaps having been inside a tech + technology company before, I always assumed programs like this would exist. I remain a bit surprised that people didn’t think this existed.

Insurance providers weigh in on whether AVs are safer than human drivers or not

David Zipper interviews another David (David Kidd, VP for Vehicle Research at the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety). The long-story-short is that the insurance industry doesn’t yet have enough data to assume that AVs are safer than human-operated vehicles. Kidd believes that certain contexts and environments may mean the AV operates more safely than in other environments, meaning that AV safety assessments need to be done on a case-by-case basis.

Hong Kong to allow AV test on longer routes

This latest expansion will allow AVs to travel between the airport island to Sunny Bay and Tung Chung town centre on Lantau. Hong Kong’s current pilot license is held by Baidu’s ApolloGo program. Alongside this, HK is also permitting vehicles to have backup operators stationed remotely rather than inside the vehicle itself. Interested operators can submit applications for a pilot licence.

Tesla’s $243 million Autopilot payout

A federal judge in Miami denied Tesla’s bid to overturn a $243 million jury verdict in a lawsuit over a fatal Autopilot crash that took place in 2019 and killed the life of 22-year-old Naibel Benavides.

“During the trial, McGee said that when he dropped his phone while driving and scrambled to pick it up, he thought the [Enhanced Autopilot] system would brake if an obstacle was in the way. McGee’s car instead accelerated through an intersection at just over 60 mph, hitting a nearby empty parked car as well as Angulo and Benavides, who were standing on the other side of their vehicle.”

Here’s a fun website that calculates Muck’s earnings by the second, in case you want to compare. Cue the tiniest of violins.

Waymo’s latest launches

Waymo added four cities to its operations this week—Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando—bringing their total operations to ten cities in the US. Their goal is to reach a million rides per week, and I will once again remind you, this doesn’t sound like modal shift to me!!! Waymo has also begun testing in Chicago and Charlotte (Electrek). There is currently no policy framework for AV operations in Chicago or the State of Illinois.

Wayve raises a $1.5 (£1.2) billion

And for some reason, half of the headlines were about why the cars won’t be stopped by potholes (BBC). This makes Wayve one of the UK’s most valuable tech companies, with investors including Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Nvidia.

I personally really like Wayve’s approach to AV development (I know, a rarity) because they have taken a vehicle-agnostic approach, which means that (in theory) their technology could be applied to any vehicle: a wheelchair-accessible vehicle, a van, a shuttle, and so on. But the real test of their capability will be when they actually launch a service. They are currently testing technology on street in London, San Francisco, Japan and Germany.

The BBC says that Wayve is “a rare example of a British tech company which is among the market leaders in its field,” even though they have no active services launched (yet). Alongside Waymo, they have their sights set on London operations later this year in partnership with Uber.

Uber launches AV support arm

As somebody who once worked for ‘Lyft Urban Solutions’ (aka Lyft’s micromobility arm that operates the likes of Citi Bike and supplies bikeshare infrastructure from London to Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, and Barcelona….) Uber naming their robotaxi support unit ‘Uber Autonomous Solutions’ is quite funny to me. And indicative of each company’s priorities. Anywho.

Via this unit, Uber will take on many of the things it does for its drivers, such as vehicle financing, fleet management tools, and regulatory assistance. This expands their partners’ (Wayve, WeRide, Nuro, Waabi, etc) capabilities, given Uber’s already dominating the global ride-hailing market and having built out this infrastructure a decade ago (and has been improving it ever since). In theory, this will make it easier for their partners who have yet to scale to manoeuvre more seamlessly towards launches.

On AVs and public health

An interview with Johnathon Ehsani, Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, that I disagree with wholeheartedly for having no counter-argument about the impact of sedentary lifestyles..

“So we do see a direct link between transportation and health across the life course, because the ability to get around is a social determinant of health. In fact, it’s connected to all the social determinants of health like education, employment, healthcare, spending time with friends and family. And autonomous vehicles can unlock this mobility for huge segments of the population who need it most. Because they have no driver, the cost of an AV trip could be much lower than traditional ride-sharing, too, though the field is just at the beginning of figuring out the economic model for AVs.”

(1) AVs are currently priced at a premium to ride-sharing, so .. wrong, and (2) I would like to present a well-funded and frequent bus service as an alternative. Or (3) a bike!

Nobody wants to live next to the highway

“If we design a road for current car volumes, we are inducing those volumes to exist, and we’re actively working against our mode shift goals. Add a lane, and it will quickly fill with cars. Only by designing for reduced car capacity can we manifest a reduction in car volume. And only when we design for less car volume can we improve the experience of movement for everyone outside of vehicles.”

Internships!

• [New York City, US - Metropolitan Transit Agency] Internships Galore!! Shout out to current MTA Natalie for sharing this <3

• [San Francisco, US - City of San Francisco] Internships Galore x2!!

• Peanut had a lot of big firsts this weekend: first trip to Hampstead Heath, first bath, first time meeting a baby, first time hosting a dinner party, all while learning the ins and outs of dog life.

• On Saturday, Peanut and I hosted an iftar-ish dinner (mashallah indeed), and made this kofta dish from the Falestine cookbook and this divine (!! seriously can’t be overstated !!) fig and olive oil cake. Highly recommend both. Afterwards, we watched Polite Society, and it was insane in the best way.

• Finally…. let the record show, I enjoyed Wuthering Heights. Was it the best movie I’ve ever seen? No. Was it unnerving and lust-filled? Yes. Do I agree with the criticism that Emerald Fennell portrays working class people in a problematic way? Yes. I also expected more Charli XCX tunes, which were not as prevalent as I thought they would be given the hype!! Would love to know your thoughts.

• In the realm of staying educated about things that scare me / I am skeptical of… this article about Anthropic not bending to Trump’s Department of War and this long read about the state of AI on human / childhood development and the end of thinking were both harrowing and informative in their own ways (N.B. Sam Kriss has cheap and useless takes on poor people in San Francisco that didn’t add to the point he was trying to make).

That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah

If you’d like to support my work and this newsletter, please consider becoming a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition or making a donation.