Heya friends, happy Friday.
Ooof what a week we’ve had. Long-term subscribers will know I’m not one to stay silent when events—beyond the scope of this newsletter per se—occur. If you’re new here, I have shared resources in the past about the ongoing conflict in Darfur, and spoken openly about BLM, amongst other heartbreaking events.
This week my heart is so heavy and full of grief, as I imagine it is for many of you. Talking about silly little cars that drive themselves feels insignificant and futile in the face of this week’s catastrophic attack on Jewish people in Israel. I have no familial connections to Israel, but I have plenty of loved ones who have deep connections there. According to substack, I also have eight subscribers in Israel, and my heart aches for them.
During my undergrad I took a class on the geographies of warfare. It covered topics such as urbicide (essentially the killing of a city), precarious life (shout-out to Judith Butler), amongst other lessons I’ll link out to in Bits and Bobs. I still have a book, Does Terrorism Work, on my bookshelf to this day, which usually I’m made fun of for, but this week it seems to stare back at me as I write.
I don’t want to sit here on my soapbox and state the obvious that killing innocent civilians is bad and geopolitics is complicated. I don’t want to belittle you and tell you to educate yourself on the Israeli State and how it is so different from Jewish and Israeli people. I also don’t want to go on about multiple truths being true at the same time, and yet that’s what I seem to have to offer. I’ll add that it’s a skill to know when you don’t have all the information you need before participating in a conversation, and it’s ok to not know everything all at once. What matters more is taking the time to fill in the gaps.
It pains me to imagine the foreseen violence that will undeniably make its way to Gaza leading to more unnecessary pain and death. My heart already hurts knowing food, water, and medical supplies have already been cut off in Gaza. It hurts knowing that Jewish people around the world are experiencing intergenerational trauma, having watched their loved ones be murdered.
I hope however you are experiencing this pain you are finding ways to take care and slow down. We are not meant to process these events quickly. We are meant to hug our people, cry in meeting rooms, and speak to one another and attempt to make sense of what to do next, even when no sense can ever be found.
There’s some news below, because as we all know the world seems to keep turning despite it also seeming to suddenly stop. If it’s not your jam today, I give you full permission to skip it. I am sending each of you all my love.
Singapore increased the price of their car permits to $76k
How to immediately change car culture: make it very expensive and all alternatives abundant and affordable. Rocket Science! Before even buying a car in Singapore, drivers must procure a 10-year Certificate of Entitlement which costs an insignificant $76k USD for a small car. SUVs hover closer to $106k. The result? Singapore’s car ownership rate sits at 11%, compared to 80% in the U.S. and 50% in Europe.
Cambridge, UK drops plans for congestion charging
Originally this post was the first under policy, but I decided it was too sad following the intro, so here it is, in the middle. Cambridge has scraped plans for congestion charging following Rishi’s abysmal “Plan for Drivers”. The charge was expected to raise around £26 million a year to help fund an expanded and cheaper bus service, as well as improvements to cycling and walking routes.
Thankfully NYC plans to launch congestion charging next year
*attempting to end on a positive note*
The projected revenue for congestion charging in NYC is [drumroll please…..!] $15 billion USD. Funding will be used on Capital projects across the city, including adding four new Metro stops in the Bronx, much-needed system upgrades, zero-emission buses (we loooove), and more.
Filed under: Pinteresting. Google has taken a 3.5% stake in Oxa, formerly Oxbotica, which spun out from the University of Oxford in 2014. Oxa develops software for AVs, and they have already worked together on simulation and testing technology.
A short and sweet piece about May Mobility, a Michigan-based start-up focused on shared shuttles and accessibility. Of the many companies / teams I’ve seen in this field, May has genuinely focused their efforts on rider accessibility and on how people with disabilities will actually use their system to ensure AVs can deliver on their lofty promises. Worth the read and further exploration if you’re unfamiliar :)
And about every news outlet has published a puff piece about it. All of it is positive. PR is [redacted]. Here are two slightly less fluffy pieces:
Waymo launch in Santa Monica is met with excitement and tension (LA Times)
Teamsters organizes protest against Waymo’s launch (Teamsters)
Waymo also announced its expansion in San Francisco (approved in August) this week (The Verge). It’s nothing we didn’t already know, but now it’s just ~official~.
Cruise news 👀
Cruise says they are updating their fleet in SF to better respond to emergencies (SF Chronicle).
Personally, I’ve been reflecting on how, since I moved to SF I have found Cruise’s AVs specifically drive more aggressively than they did three years ago. More to come on this little pondering, but suffice it to say, I’m not really excited to see the tradeoffs the company will make when developing this new tech.
But that certainly won’t convince Cruise to slow their roll, as this week they launched in Houston (Tech Crunch). It likely won’t be long until the cars start to roll through Dallas too; Cruise has been collecting mapping data in Dallas since earlier this year. Here’s a nice piece about whether Dallas city officials will even be able to regulate and hold Cruise accountable 🫠 (Kera News).
Back to the fair State of California, Cruise is also starting to launch data collection in San Diego (Axios). It really feels like we are on the precipice of AVs, despite the fact that every week there tends to be some new major issue that was entirely preventable if only we’d invested our resources in better infrastructure.
How the pandemic changed commuting patterns
“The top 50 most populous urban areas in the U.S. saw significant increases in access to jobs by driving during the morning peak. For example, compared to pre-pandemic travel patterns in January 2020, the typical worker in 2021 in the Atlanta region could reach 82% more jobs; a worker in the Seattle area, 62% more jobs; in Houston, 50% more; in Minneapolis, 42% more.”
“For all the ballyhoo over the possibility of artificial intelligence threatening humanity someday, there’s remarkably little discussion of the ways it is threatening humanity right now.. The reason is simple: There are no federal software safety testing standards for autonomous vehicles — a loophole large enough for Elon Musk, General Motors and Waymo to drive thousands of cars through.”
Additional readings from my Geographies of Warfare class:
Judith Butler’s Book Frames of War: When is Life Grievable, but if you’re looking for a shorter digest, their essay on Precariousness and Grievability is a good one.
You likely could have guessed it, but anything Edward Said is a great place to start. Said has numerous publications, Orientalism being his foundational book, but he has written heavily on Palestine as well.
Slight tone shift. San Francisco-based readers, my really cool friend Joe has started Friiway, offering e-bike subscriptions for the bike curious. If you’re interested in trying out that sweet-sweet e-bike life, but are nervous about the upfront investment then Joe has just the treat for you.
Monday was Indigenous People’s Day in the US. I invite you to join me in learning if where you live has a land tax, Indigenous Mutual Aid Fund, or other way to support Indigenous and First Nation sovereignty.
Last but not least, here’s a snippet from a poem I read this week (via rabbi_tova on Instagram)
May we hold ourselves back from our judgment while remembering our humanity.
May we not waiver on the possibility of peace despite it seeming impossible in the moment.
May we remember the love we feel—let that love guide us through the unthinkable.
Let it envelop our entire beings.
That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.
Sarah
And a special thank you to my friend V for pre-reading my intro this week. I love you.
All so very well said, Sarah. As always.