11.29 - Han’s the Best!
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Monday, July 24, 2023
the Best!-072923
29th edition of the 11th year of SmartDrivingCars eLetter
We Took a San Francisco Cabbie for a Driverless Car Ride. He Had Opinions
H. Li, July 27, "Barry Taranto doesn't feel any immediate threat to his livelihood from the rise of the driverless car. But this long-time San Francisco taxi driver is still angry that they exist.
As a board member of the San Francisco Taxi Workers Alliance, Taranto has been an outspoken critic of Uber and Lyft. But now, he finds himself again besieged by brand-new technology on the road.
"The city is a mess," Taranto said. "Adding these autonomous vehicles is going to cause more congestion."
As part of The Standard's series on the rising trend of driverless cars in San Francisco, we took Taranto on a ride—his first—to see what he thought about the experience.
"I'm interested to see how this particular vehicle handles different situations," he told The Standard, "especially during the daytime."
Amid busy daytime traffic, the ride was a bit challenging, but the small SUV traveled smoothly and slowly through San Francisco's complex topography.
"I've dealt with [passengers] getting upset that you are driving so cautiously that you're stopping at practically every light," Taranto said, criticizing the Waymo's slow speed—most of the time under 30 mph. In San Francisco's dense area, many streets have a 25 to 30 mph legal speed limit.
However, Taranto admitted to a feeling of extra safety.
"Wow! Bingo!!! "Turing Proof-of-Technology" passed by Taranto with an "extra safe"! Wow!!... (my emphasis).
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Hmmmm… Never mind! My bad!! Han, you're the best!!! After arranging such a great testimonial, how can the CPUC not vote approval on August 10. Taranto's other challenges are all readily solvable… more Waymos, less wait; recommendations of better routes can easily be incorporated; doing kiosks instead of hailing can vastly improve boarding and alighting by everyone, especially those that have special needs; and, as far as congestion goes, ride sharing and the opportunity to fleet manage the "getting to the next ride and from the end of the last ride" will incur fewer non-rider miles than Taranto, the members of the San Francisco Taxi Worker Alliance and Uber/Lyft drivers can do on their own as they move around rider-empty as they, today, seek their next customers. Han, Thank you!! You arranged THE best testimonial! Alain
SmartDrivingCars ZoomCast 327 / PodCast 327 Han's the Best!
F. Fishkin, July 29, "A SF Taxi Alliance Board member takes a Waymo ride and says he felt extra safe! That's on top on episode 327 of Smart Driving Cars. That plus the latest from Cruise, Tesla, Uber, SpaceX and more. Join Princeton's Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for the latest in autonomous mobility.
- 0:00 open
- 0:37 SF Standard takes Taxi Worker's Alliance Board member for Waymo ride and he says he felt "extra safe"
- 09:40 Waymo focusing efforts on ride hailing
- 20:00 Cruise expanding to Nashville and more
- 21:10 Wired report on legal saga of Uber fatal crash coming to end
- 28:45 TorqueNews report on Musk confirming Tesla FSD v12 Alpha using new single AI model
- 33:15 SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch
- 36:25 GM launching Hands Free Eyes On education program
- 39:56 The Verge reports driverless car legislation still stuck in neutral
- 49:03 Alain adds one more pitch for new mobility in NJ
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