Why Do We Fear Waymos More Than We Fear Bad Drivers

About this episode

William Riggs discusses the societal contradictions surrounding the acceptance of human drivers versus the scrutiny of autonomous vehicles in San Francisco.

On this California Sun Podcast I’m joined by William Riggs , a professor of engineering and management at the University of San Francisco and an expert on transportation innovation. He expalins how San Francisco — now ground zero for America’s autonomous vehicle future, with more than 1,000 Waymos on its streets — is exposing a strange contradiction: Society tolerates the deadly carnage caused by human drivers while holding self-driving cars to an impossible standard, even as the data increasingly suggests the technology will save lives. Get full access to Talk Cocktail Podcast at jeffschechtman.substack.com/subscribe

People in this episode

Host: Jeff Schechtman

Guest: William Riggs

Topics covered

• autonomous vehicles
• transportation innovation
• public perception
• safety
• human drivers
• technology

Keywords

• autonomous vehicles
• Waymos
• transportation
• safety
• public perception
• San Francisco
• human drivers

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of San Francisco

Products: Waymos

Places: San Francisco

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