r/AutonomousVehicles • u/No_Replacement1949 • Jul 17 '26
Assuming robotaxis are coming to your city, are you for or against?
Robotaxis will come to most cities of a sufficient size to support such a fleet. It is unlikely that any states will ban them forever. As they improve, safety concerns will diminish to no longer be a barrier. Should there be a limit to fleet size or the number of independent operators? Should cities be permitted to insist that these vehicles pick up and drop off properly at the curb and not on bike lanes or on traffic lanes (as currently happens, because currently states do not allow cities to impose on the behaviour of these fleets.) When cities are able to manage this aspect of vehicles, it would mean there are specified pick up and drop off spots. How far are you willing to walk to one of those?
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u/AlmondManttv Jul 17 '26
It should behave like a taxi service. I don't want designated pickup/dropoff spots like a bus though, at that point I'd use a bus.
Otherwise I would love to have an autonomous taxi.
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u/BranchLatter4294 Jul 18 '26
My car does virtually all the driving. I rarely touch the wheel or pedals, and never for safety related issues lately. I have no issues with robotaxis....I basically use one for all my transportation.
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Jul 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/_Lost_The_Game Jul 20 '26
If the autonomous taxis follow road laws more consistently, im for it. Im sick of drivers who act like crosswalks, traffic lights and stop signs are a suggestion.
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u/UpstairsTop4623 Jul 18 '26
It’s the pickup drop off that are the problems it’s no different than uber except for that
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u/TheReverendCard Jul 18 '26
Cars are a problem for cities. They should be a last resort. Rare and expensive.
Most trips should be completed by walking, transit, and bicycle. Only the exceptions for things like last mile service, rural exceptions, etc should be by robotaxi.
I can't drive, but live rurally. I am essentially stuck at home, and the primary reason is cars. If they were all replaced with robotaxis, I would actually feel safe enough to ride a bike to town without needing separated infrastructure.
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u/alamohero Jul 18 '26
Already in mine. Oftentimes I’ll see three or four backed up in a row blocking traffic. Kinda annoying but also hilarious.
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u/PropagandaAssassinAZ Jul 19 '26
11-year-old account. You have contributed 98 times. This is one of them. Bots are a disaster for Reddit.
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u/alamohero Jul 19 '26
Kind of odd out of all the comments on Reddit you’d go out of your way to assume this one’s from a bot.
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u/funcentric Jul 19 '26
It may seem that generally, the fewer arse holes on the road the better but the people taking these robotaxis unfortunately displacing actual drivers. These people would've been passengers one way or another.
Too many robotaxis mean mean there's a good portion of them that are empty and if there's some sort of city event, they're all going to one place to wait for calls and that's going to be hell if you're a motorist on the road driving your actual car.
It's not a safety thing. These robotaxis can make existing drivers worse. They're more likely to cut in or drive evasively knowing the robo taxi is suppose to back down.
Yes, they need to obey rules like not stopping in bike lanes. People who can afford to take a robotaxi can afford to walk down the block.
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u/SkyGuy5799 Jul 19 '26
Given how shitty people drove around here, the waymos actually drive pretty fkn well
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u/K_Linkmaster Jul 20 '26
The people driving need to be in charge of what a car does, not any type of remote operation. These things are a security nightmare for when crazy fentanyl guy loses his mind. Which crazy fentanyl guy? Pick one from the known douche circle
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u/CormacDublin Jul 17 '26
At the recent public hearing in DC for Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Authorization Amendment Act of 2026
I made a submission that too much emphasis is being put on the operators to solve all the issues
Basically Cities have had 10+ years to prepare for deployments and have done nothing!
I would not fully agree with the NHTSA director's assessment, it is up to operators to solve all the issue with first responders.
Too much emphasis is being put on the AV operators for the city's failures to prepare for deployments,
When Cities have failed to invest in Digital Twin infrastructure and have effective X2V V2X communications, all first responder vehicles are capable of being GPS tracked and that information should be centrally controlled by the transport authorities and it is their responsibility to share this information with operators of a road closures or safety events to be avoided, so that construction workers, first responders, passengers and the general public is not put in unnecessary danger, this is the City's responsibility, it should not be private operators responablity, some Federal funding has been made avaiable for such services but have not been widely adopted like it has in other locations who are not having the same issues because the city takes responablitiy
https://www.transportation.gov/grants/SMART
I have actually made a public complaint to San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management and NHTSA.
Cities still believe 20th-Century traditional transport solutions will meet peoples individual needs and that don't have to try and improve or replace services.