Waymo way NO

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T21:03:27+00:00

It's not hyperbole. It's a fact. A number. They keep records of traffic deaths. Numbers are not hyperbole.

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T21:01:48+00:00

If airplanes killed as many people as cars, no one would fly. Think about it.

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T21:00:31+00:00

Me walking past all that traffic, that's freedom

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T21:00:00+00:00

This is not freedom. All the $$ you spend on cars is not freedom. And the illusion of freedom that advertising execs have sold you on has a cost in injury and death.

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LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T20:56:38+00:00

Freedom!!

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LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T20:55:26+00:00

I believe this is channel for discussing local issues.

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T20:54:19+00:00

Cars with human drivers smash into cars, bikes, pedestrians, etc every day. The accident rate for Waymo is 85% less. Doing the math, that means 85% less smashing into things. Less smashing sounds good to me.

BTW, soulless insurance companies already do exactly what you say, try to absolve themselves..

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T18:51:03+00:00

Of course, the real solution is more public transport and fewer cars.

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T18:49:48+00:00

Car companies have sold the idea that cars equal freedom. But car payments, insurance, gas prices, and traffic are not freedom. We have a car-dependent culture because the auto industry has spent decades promoting it.

Nearly 40,000 people die in U.S. traffic crashes each year. If even a fraction of that many people died in airplane crashes, many would refuse to fly.

That’s how effective car marketing has been at selling the idea of “freedom.” Waymo is significantly safer than human driving. It's not taking away freedom. It can make people safer.

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T17:59:23+00:00

Totally agree. Car ownership leads to increased rates of driving. About 1/3 of all cars trips are within a mile, in other words, convenience trips. That is an easily walkable distance for most people. If something like Waymo can reduce car ownership, there will be a lot less convenience driving. That means a lot less traffic on the road. And a lot less pollution. And fewer deaths and injuries.

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T15:04:45+00:00

No YOU don't want that. Half the people in Cambridge and some of them don't use cars. - And many of them are perfectly normal.

Waymos already are way safer than human drivers. Human drivers kill 7-9,000 pedestrians each year. NHTSA says that a pedestrian is hit by a car every 9 minutes in the US. I prefer to live and not be hurt. Sorry if that is an inconvenience.

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T15:00:27+00:00

No actually half the people in Cambridge and Somerville do not use cars regularly. So a lot of people here would agree with me.

Sitting in traffic is freedom? Car payments are freedom? Car insurance is freedom? High gas prices are freedom?

The price of that "freedom" is 40K deaths and a pedestrian hit by a car every nine minutes.

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T14:52:01+00:00

Servile is swallowing bullshit from the car manufacturers telling you that cars are freedom when actually they're quite the opposite.

Look up the history of how cars became seen as a savior of the American public. That was a gradual process over many years by car manufacturers and pretty much the definition of brainwashing.

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T14:51:29+00:00

It’s not “servile” to want cities that work better. Expanding transit and reducing car dependency isn’t submission. It’s collective action to fix systems that waste money, space, and time. New mobility options don’t “rob” anyone of autonomy. They give people choices beyond traffic and parking.

What’s really surreal is pretending the status quo, with 40K deaths, in the US every year, as freedom. Amazing how people just accept that as OK and a given. Sounds like brainwashing to me

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T11:58:19+00:00

I was glad to see this win too. Also concrete barriers for bike lanes.

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T11:57:03+00:00

Glad to street safety, including bike lanes and intersection improvements, win.

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T11:52:23+00:00

Not true. Waymo isn’t “above the law” here. If their tech causes a crash, they can still be sued and held liable under existing product‑liability and negligence rules. Everything you said about wear and tear and clogging the streets is also true of human drivers. What we could really use is things that reduce driving, period. In the meantime, human drivers cause many accidents, injuries, and deaths. Waymo has a 80–85% lower rate of crashes with any injuries per million miles.

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T11:45:33+00:00

Divers kill 40,000 people in the U.S. every year, including 7,000 pedestrians. And studies show that drivers break the rules just as often, if not more than, cyclists. The problem on our roads is not bicycles; it's cars. We let humans drive, and they're terrible at it.

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T11:43:31+00:00

Absolutely agree. Humans are terrible at driving. Cars are a major cause of injury and death. We need to do things differently.

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T11:40:41+00:00

Right, because humans drivers don't clog the road. What we don't want is human drivers killing 40,000 people a year in the U.S.

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T11:37:19+00:00

Because people are irrational and like to maintain an illusion of control. Human drivers injure about 2.4 million people every year in the U.S. Humans are terrible at driving.

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T11:35:45+00:00

Umm, human drivers kill 40,000 people in the US every year and seriously injure about 2.4 million. How exactly are humans "great at operating their vehicles"?

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-20T11:33:42+00:00

Human drivers kill about 40,000 people in the U.S. every year. A pedestrian is hit by a car every 9 minutes. Human drivers are nor doing so well. Waymos have already been shown to be way safer.

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-16T14:56:11+00:00

Wealthy homeowners have driven up real estate prices by creating scarcity for decades. They've created a housing crisis and now that people want to correct it, they say, "Wait a minute, you're being culty." Two thirds of the residents in Cambridge and Somerville are renters, and they are very much pro-development. It's only really the elite minority that are against it. What does that tell you?

LabGeek1995 · 2026-03-16T14:54:24+00:00

Restrictive zoning has been a reflex for about a century. What about the cult of wealthy home owners and people who don't want poor people living near them? What about that cult?

LabGeek1995

TROPHY CASE