Along for the Ride #270
paris, gender emission woes, and waymo's recall
Heya friends, happy Friday!
Sending everybody ~positive energy~. My parents have just left after a three week stint in London, so I’m back on my writing newsletter ways. I’m annoyed at the Labour government (see disgraceful immigration policy here), and questioning if my generation will ever see a truly progressive government regime? Trying not to lose hope, but also watching the hyper organized right-wing governments successfully bash apart anybody with a spine, so not-not losing hope.
On the flip-side of this spectrum, I did get to spend a long weekend in Paris with my mom, and was as inspired as ever by the cheap and easily implemented infrastructure that has helped turned Paris into one of the great cycling cities of the world. Seeing it embrace biking in a few short years re-affirms my belief that we don’t always need new technology or fancy long-term studies or expensive interventions. Sometimes we just need political will power (aka spine, nearing extinction!!), light infrastructure, and an experimental inclination to pilot new ideas.
In other exciting news, my friend Rosie (who created the graphic design of this newsletter!), has offered to do a weekly illustration for my newsletter (eeeep). She painted up this beautiful scene of Paris for this week’s edition. She has an etsy shop where you can buy prints. If you have any ideas for future illustrations, please pop ‘em in the comments <3
Given it’s been two weeks (eep), today’s edition is links-based, but I’m really excited because I have plans to actually follow up on some of the collaborations I’ve been mulling over, so more news on that soon!
USDOT cuts funding for “woke” transportation research grants (Streetsblog)
A fun spotlight on Sunset Dunes, San Francisco’s newest park that is a converted highway along the beach (love) (Bloomberg)
How Hong Kong is accelerating their AV trials (SCMP)
The impact of congestion pricing in NYC is already showing results (NYT)
Deloitte has a paper about if cities / states are ready for AVs (Deloitte)
A French study of 15,000 people shows men emit 26% more pollution due to eating red meat and driving more (The Guardian)
Americans are losing interest in buying cars (Newsweek)
This interview with Sebastian Thrun (founder of Waymo) shares his reflections on where the company has gotten to, and his hopes for AVs in the future (Business Insider)
I found it largely eye roll worthy as it relates to him speaking about cities, at one point he talks about removing traffic lights since AVs won’t need them … as if they are only used to coordinate car traffic, lol
Waymo issues recall after “minor” collision—thanks Remco for the share! (Reuters)
Waymo sets their sights on Boston, and will begin mapping the city soon (Boston Globe)
Baidu looking to brings AVs to Europe (WSJ)
Why can’t we have more trains :(
Pony.ai confirms one of their AVs caught fire (bad vibes); they did not confirm what caused the fire (CNBC)
Tesla still isn’t testing its robotaxi fleet without drivers ahead of a planned launch next month …… (is this news??) (Futurism)
Tesla is also pushing a lidar-free version of the assisted driving system while they wait for the Chinese government to approve FSD (SCMP)
How China is shaping the future of logistics with “ghost trucks” (Fast Co)
Aurora brings its first AV delivery truck to Texas (The Verge)
Transportation finance equity: A theoretical and empirical review of pricing equity, expenditure equity, and pricing-expenditure equity in US transit provision (Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives)
How car brain is ruining our lives (Streetsblog)
The life or death case for AVs (Vox)
As AVs progress, local regulations need to catch up (GovTech)
I stand true that the best things to do in Paris are to walk / bike around, stop at little bistros for a bite, and drink wine in jardin du luxembourg with a baguette and cheese. Can’t go wrong.
My mom loves gnomes (lol) and she made us go to the London Gnome Garden, just around the corner from the design museum + leighton house (very worth it!!) + holland park. It made her day, and thus it made my day.
That’s all from me. Have a beautiful weekend friends.
Sarah
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Coven?! I thought I loved you before! Hopefully that was an improvised Maypole. Happy belated Beltane!