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As a counterpoint, Waymo conducted a pilot in NYC then abandoned the permit for it:

https://www.thecity.nyc/2026/04/06/waymo-driverless-cars-tes...

Phoenix is probably about as good a location as you could get for a self driving car. It’s not yet clear how wide their success will be outside of that niche.

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AI has the same problem. It’s not that it doesn’t work, but that folks just aren’t all that interested in adopting it at scale. Tech makes this “build it and they will come” error a lot. The tech is quite good, but it’s all the non tech aspects of this that are why it’s not getting impact at scale.
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The tech is good but not as good as advertised: note how Microsoft is simultaneously running ads saying Copilot can run your business and claiming it’s only for entertainment purposes in the EULA? Self-driving vehicles have a similar struggle where the manufacturers talk about the capabilities but aren’t willing to sign a legal agreement accepting liability for errors except in the easiest situations (and in the case of Waymo, only with pliable governments and control so they could immediately halt operations in the event of a major problem).

That’s more “build part of it, say you built all of it, and wonder why they don’t come”.

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You’re generalizing too much here. One of the biggest problems with LLM’s today is in-fact that they are not at the level being advertised. This is not solely a case of regulation standing in the way of a «revolution».
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Ever driven in Bali?
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No, it’s actually the same issue with AI in a lot of cases. In perfect conditions it can work reliably, but outside of that it falls apart in a way humans don’t.
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This has not been my experience with Waymo. I drove a total of about ~3.5 hours in Waymos in LA when I was visiting and their robustness to very unusual situations absolutely floored me.

I am sure you can find truly out-of-distribution cases where the car will make a mistake, but the data shows that this is more rare than a human driver making a mistake.

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How many times did they need remote assistance? Those teams aren’t driving remotely but Waymo doesn’t pay for entire groups to exist without need.
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No, it’s actually the same issue with AI in a lot of cases. In perfect conditions it can work reliably, but outside of that it falls apart.
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> certain markets like Phoenix

So, basically the easiest robotaxi market on the planet? Call me when it works in Bucharest, Mumbai, Istanbul, Cairo, etc.

For software the last 80% of effort needed to finish the 20% remaining items is the hardest and hardware is even harder.

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