The Red & White

The driverless ride-hailing service Waymo is aiming to expand into New York City. While Waymo already operates in other major cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin, bringing it to New York City would present a different set of challenges. These other cities are car-dependent and don’t rely as heavily on public transportation as New York City does. New York, however, has millions of residents who depend on subways and buses to get around. Adding driverless cars to an already dense urban landscape could potentially create more problems than it solves. 

To understand these risks, we can look back at what happened in the mid-2010s, when ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft became extremely popular. This rapid growth occurred in cities that didn’t have strong regulations in place. Without these rules, both companies were able to expand quickly, hiring more and more drivers to meet customer demand and outcompete one another. Additionally, to attract more customers, both companies began lowering their prices, leading to a price war that made rides cheap and easily accessible. 

While this seems great for customers who want cheap transportation, it causes serious problems, especially in a city like New York. In a place where “48 percent of workers rely on public transportation” according to the New York Times, that kind of shift can put stress on the roads. The streets of New York are already crowded, and adding even more vehicles would likely lead to heavy gridlock and longer travel times. 

While lower prices helped riders save money, they also made life much harder for drivers. Since there were no laws guaranteeing a minimum wage, many drivers struggled to make ends meet. They were responsible for their own gas, insurance, and car maintenance, and their earnings dropped as ride prices continued to fall. In response to these growing problems, former Mayor Bill de Blasio introduced a series of new policies. He put a cap on the number of ride-hail vehicles allowed on the road, created a minimum pay rule for drivers, and supported congestion pricing. One of the major steps was adding a “$2.75-per-ride surcharge” for non-taxi services, meant to reduce congestion and fund public transit improvements. 

New York City has learned from this experience. That’s why city officials are being much more cautious about allowing new technologies like Waymo to operate. The fear is that without smart rules and regulations, Waymo’s services could repeat the same mistakes that Uber and Lyft made, adding to crowded streets and hurting public transit. As the New York Times put it, “When Uber came to town, New York was naïvely giddy, allowing technology to govern the city.” Now, the city is trying to do the opposite because “it should be the other way around.”