{"id":205825,"date":"2025-09-06T20:15:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T20:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/205825\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T20:15:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T20:15:22","slug":"will-upper-west-siders-break-the-car-bots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/205825\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Upper West Siders Break the Car Bots?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Upper West Side intersections can be puzzling \u2014 and chaotic. Photos by Yvonne V\u00e1vra<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Yvonne V\u00e1vra<\/strong><\/p>\n

It took me years to learn how to move like New York moves. Before the city, I just walked. Forward, steady, unchallenged. Not anymore. On an Upper West Side street, you\u2019ve got to weave your way between a tree and a brownstone, or a trash bag and someone wrist-deep in nachos at a sidewalk caf\u00e9. All the while, you\u2019re dancing around strollers, dogs, and whatever else decides to cut in, while tree roots and rats quietly undo the pavement beneath you.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>On the avenues\u2014especially near a subway station\u2014it\u2019s go time. You\u2019re dropped into a video game, and only razor-sharp focus and split-second reflexes can get you to the next level. Challenges come flying at you: Upper West Siders darting around corners, delivery bikes, smartphone zombies, tired tourists, toddlers in strollers, big personalities, tiny dogs. You\u2019re dodging, yielding, pivoting. Nothing beats the rush of owning the chaos and coming out unscathed.<\/p>\n

And now, AI wants to join the circus. Self-driving cars are rolling into New York\u2014just eight of them, courtesy of Waymo, taking their first supervised spins in a pilot program. One was recently spotted on the Upper West Side<\/a>, and reading about it stirred up my usual cocktail of curiosity and existential dread. I\u2019m all for change, but when it shows up, I\u2019m wired to meet it kicking and screaming. How many professional drivers will lose their livelihoods? Will Waymo\u2019s profits trickle back to the city in any way? Could these cars get hacked and send my helpless butt straight to Jersey? What if a software glitch traps me in an endless loop around Columbus Circle\u2014like that poor guy last year who got dizzy in a Waymo that just wouldn\u2019t stop circling a parking lot? On a Monday, no less.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve got plenty more concerns. Like, what happens to our self-worth when we\u2019re constantly reminded we\u2019re not good enough, and the future doesn\u2019t need anyone who can\u2019t build, train, or command the machines? But for now, let me distract us from the existential ache of being the squishy, error-prone species in the room by focusing on another concern: the robot\u2019s wellbeing. Will New York drive it to its knees?<\/p>\n

I hail from a country of order and loving respect for rules. Even in supercool Berlin, we do not question the will of the red light. We wait at the crosswalk, car in sight or not, and we\u2019ll hiss at you if you dare to use your common sense and step out against the light. In that climate, robot cars can thrive.<\/p>\n

But here? Waymos will need to learn how to get angry or find other reasons to push ahead with gutsy entitlement. I\u2019ve learned that as a pedestrian on a side street, if a driver hesitates a second too long to claim their right of way, that means I go. If we make eye contact and they look like well-adjusted citizens, that means I go. And if they start moving but I bare my teeth? That also means I go. At the same time, I\u2019m happy to lose the battle and yield to the stronger attitude. It\u2019s all about instinct, intuition, and mutual understanding.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Will Waymo know what to do here?<\/p>\n

What\u2019s a Waymo gonna do? Politely wait until the last of the human obstacles has taken their chances? It\u2019ll be stuck at that crosswalk until the battery dies.<\/p>\n

AI cars play by the rules\u2014and that might be their dead end in this city. Between jaywalkers and double-parkers, tourists on Citibikes and less confused cyclists, fearless pigeons, and airborne plastic bags, this place is going to fry their circuits.<\/p>\n

However, the chaos will feed the machines. The New York pilot program will be a goldmine of hot, messy, one-of-a-kind data to train the next generation. They\u2019ll know better. And from what I know about AI (admittedly, next to nothing), they won\u2019t hesitate. They\u2019ll take it up with us and move with cold, unshakable confidence.<\/p>\n

Until then, I wish them luck. Because we\u2019ll keep moving in our bold, entitled ways, fully aware the robot is the rational one, which makes it weak. Rational just isn\u2019t the right mindset\u2014uh, cognitive architecture\u2014to make it here. I mean, do they even speak Honk?<\/p>\n

Subscribe to West Side Rag\u2019s FREE email newsletter\u00a0here<\/a>. And you can Support the Rag\u00a0here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Upper West Side intersections can be puzzling \u2014 and chaotic. Photos by Yvonne V\u00e1vra By Yvonne V\u00e1vra It…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":205826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,17228],"class_list":{"0":"post-205825","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa","21":"tag-waymo"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115159192389232180","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}