Along for the Ride #230
a short n sweet newsletter
Heya friends, happy Friday!
Today’s edition is short and sweet (aka in bullet point form) as I leave today for two weeks in Paris and London. There is a good chance I take a break from newsletter writing while on vacation, but I’ve also been debating a deep dive on infrastructure solutions that deliver against the paint points many AV companies say they are trying to solve. So it’ll be one or the other, only time will tell!
On y va!
California’s State Assembly’s Transportation Committee passed two new bills. The first would allow AVs to be ticketed when they break the rules of the road (with the bill going to the AV company), and the other bill would allow cities to manage their own regulations. The Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association obviously opposes both. (Quartz)
Hangzhou has started testing AVs in downtown and urban areas as of May 1st (SCMP)
This article details how policies have filled our city streets with massive cars (Vox)
Tesla snags AV partnership with Baidu in China, Musk meets with China’s premier to secure regulatory approvals (NYT)
Tesla’s autopilot feature was also found to be “uniquely risky” and the cause of hundreds of collisions, and 13 road fatalities (Wired)
Autonomous trucking is coming to America’s highways (Quartz)
Human congestion in newly designed public spaces: researching its social interactional potential (Journal of urbanism)
Which neighbourhoods pay more when ride-hailing is taxed? (Journal of regional science)
Elon Musk has a vision for Tesla, but others don’t seem to see it (WSJ)
Why AVs aren’t ready for prime time (CBS)
How will autonomous EVs plug themselves in? (Forbes)
This past weekend I attended my first ever passover seder, and I feel very lucky for friends (Hi Jaffe, Sarah, Sasha!) who introduced me to the traditions and stories behind Exodus, and dubbed me the “curious child”. We followed the Freedom for All Haggadah which thoughtfully contemplates the history of oppression of Jewish peoples and acknowledges the oppression of Palestinian peoples today.
I read this article from the Guardian on the “radical rebirth of King’s Cross” this week. King’s Cross is where I first lived when I moved to London, and in the four years I lived in London the area immediately surrounding the station changed vastly. Some of the overhead comparison pictures are truly astonishing. There are plenty of critiques to be made about the development, but I will say this: if a city as old as London can learn how to build mixed-use, medium to high density developments on under utilized urban space in the centre of the city… many cities can do so as well. Gotta keep dreaming.
If you are based in Paris or London (or have mobility loving friends in those neck of the woods), let me know and we can grab a
coffeehot chocolate, croissant, cheeky pint, or whatever your choice of poison.
That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.
Sarah
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i would love to read the deep dive on infrastructure but not so desperately that i can't wait until the writer's vacation is over!
the paper on taxing ridesharing is interesting, especially since there's a similar movement in SF. i didn't totally follow the _why_ of it through the academic language, so i wonder if there's a way to address some of the inequitable outcomes without getting rid of the entire idea.
Maybe start your draft of the deep drive while you are literally traveling, but otherwise e.njoy your vacation. Or to put it another way, bop 'til you drop! :)