A new nonprofit is pushing to bring driverless robotaxies like Waymo to the Empire State after a study that aimed to prove the vehicles were dangerous fell flat.
Google-owned Waymo’s pilot program for autonomous driving in the Big Apple lapsed in March, though the company’s cars are still driving around the city with a human driver behind the wheel are still patrolling the streets and gathering data.
Now the nonprofit group “A Better Road Forward” is launching TV ads directed at voters and will hold informational meetings around the state, according to Politico.
“For too many New Yorkers, safe and reliable ways to get around still depend on where you live,” said former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who is a part of the effort. “The women and families I work with know that better than anyone — a late shift, a subway that doesn’t come, a stretch of street you don’t want to walk alone at night.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul nixed a planned Waymo expansion in upstate New York after facing pushback from taxi drivers and unions.
Companies interested in the pilot can still apply through the State DMV and city Department of Transportation.
A recent report from anti-robotaxi groups had to retract a major part of their file after it improperly analyzed crash data, claiming Waymos were more dangerous than traditional taxis and ridesharing services.
The authors of the August report improperly compared NYC’s narrow “critical injury category” — injuries requiring life sustaining medical support in the ICU– with Waymo’s broader “serious injury” category, which includes injuries like fractures, severe cuts and other major injuries that are not necessarily life threatening.
Waymo’s reported injury crash rate was 0.712 per million miles nationwide, compared with 1.871 per million miles for New York City taxis and for-hire vehicles — about a 62% lower rate in the corrected analysis.
But the second version of the report’s comparison of crashes involving deaths or serious injuries was still only based on only three Waymo-involved vehicle crashes nationwide — two in the Bay Area and one with an unspecified location.
The report also arrived shortly after Sam Schwartz released Autokill, a fictional book about a terrorist plot involving autonomous vehicles.
Reps for the Sam Schwartz Transportation Research Program at Hunter College did not respond to requests for comment.
“We’re eager to work with the administration and with leaders around that state to create a thoughtful policy framework that allows for the deployment of autonomous vehicles,” a Waymo spokesperson told The Post.
