Autonomous cars have entered City Council meetings, political campaigns and state legislation where making decisions about what cities should build today, is unnerving some transportation planners and transit advocates. Unrealistic hopes for driverless cars could lead cities into plans they may come to regret.
New forms of transportation like Uber and Lyft are heavily subsidized by venture capital today, and so cities that expect private services to replace public transit are counting on those subsidies, too. They’re betting that driverless cars will get here, changing the economics of transportation, before the venture capitalists lose patience.
Read the article at The New York Times.