New York City may be one step closer to self-driving taxis.
On Friday, Mayor Eric Adams announced that Waymo, a California-based company that has been operating autonomous ride-hailing services in San Francisco, Austin, Phoenix and Los Angeles, had received a permit from the city Department of Transportation to begin testing its self-driving systems in parts of Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn.
While the futuristic advancement is a first for the Big Apple, New Yorkers will still have to wait to hail a ride from a robot taxi. Passengers won’t be permitted yet.
Here’s everything you need to know about New York’s City’s plan.
What’s an autonomous vehicle and how will it work in New York?
Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, will test up to eight autonomous Jaguar I-Pace SUVs in Manhattan south of 112th Street and in downtown Brooklyn north of Atlantic Avenue and west of Carlon Street through the end of September, city officials said.
While the vehicles will be largely self-driving, state law requires a trained autonomous vehicle, or AV, specialist to be behind the wheel, maintaining constant contact with the steering wheel and ready to assume control while the technology is in operation.
Annabel Chang, head of U.S. state and local public policy for Waymo, which obtained the first permit issued by the city through its new AV testing program, said the company was working “to lay the groundwork to bring this lifesaving technology to New Yorkers.”
What other rules are in place?
City rules require background checks for test operators, training on the vehicle systems they’ll be testing and frequent breaks that will keep them focused and avoiding distraction.
Applicants must certify that their vehicles will follow all traffic laws and curb regulations and coordinate with the city Transportation Department through regular meetings and data reporting.
The permits do not restrict the day of the week or the time of day the vehicles can operate.
Michael Brooks, executive director for the Center for Auto Safety, said while laws in New York are well-crafted to protect the public, the city presents unique challenges for AVs.
“Obviously there’s going to be a lot more pedestrian traffic in Manhattan and Brooklyn than we’ve seen in some of the other areas where Waymo is deployed, along with scooters and bikes and all sorts of non-vehicle traffic,” Brooks said. “It’s a fast-moving, complex environment so it’s probably going to be a challenge for Waymo vehicles.”
What about passengers?
Not yet. After the initial pilot testing period through the end of September, Waymo will have the opportunity to apply for an extension. For now, the use of autonomous for-hire service vehicles in the vein of Uber or Lyft is banned by the city Taxi and Limousine Commission.
But it may just be a matter of time.
Waymo, which surpassed 10 million robotaxi trips in May in cities where it has full-fledged operations, has plans to bring its autonomous vehicles to Washington, D.C., Dallas, Miami, Philadelphia and Atlanta.
“We are advocating for changes to vehicle and traffic law that would allow for the operation of fully autonomous vehicles on the public roads without a human driver,” Katherine Barna, a Waymo spokeswoman, said of the company’s New York City plans.
Does the pilot program have support?
While Paige Carbone, regional executive director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving New York, contends “autonomous vehicles hold the exciting promise of preventing deaths and injuries,” others are raising concerns.
Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents 41,000 city public transportation workers, including bus drivers and subway operators, said Waymo’s expansion was the first step toward eliminating thousands of jobs.
“New Yorkers be warned, Waymo will turn pedestrians into cannon fodder and will block streets for emergency responders,” said TWU International president John Samuelsen. “Waymo isn’t ready for NYC’s streets, and the end goal is to replace rideshare drivers, taxi drivers, and transit workers with robots.”
What about Long Island?
At the moment, Long Island does not appear to be on the immediate AV radar, Waymo officials said.
Spokesmen for the Nassau and Suffolk county executives, meanwhile, said they’re not currently contemplating bringing the technology to the streets of Garden City or Hauppauge anytime soon.
Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.