The Best Thing I Read Today #1: Ready or Not Driverless Cars are Here

The most educating piece of journalism I engaged with this week was a recent episode of New York Times Podcast The Daily entitled "Ready or not, driverless cars are here."

This episode was presented in the same format a majority of The Daily episodes are; a short, engaging, easily digestible and easily understood podcast featuring an interview with a subject matter expert and audio clips related to the story.

The episode has an introduction that immediately hooks you. It describes the ubiquity of driverless cars in San Francisco; hundreds of cars driving along without a single human passenger, and how jarring that sight can be to those who are not from the city.

Then New York Times tech reporter Cade Metz describes the process of ordering a driverless car, and what it's like to ride in one for the first time. He compares it to riding in the car with his sixteen year old daughter who is learning to drive and is overly cautious. Evidently driverless cars are much slower than a human driver like an Uber would be. They drive with the care and pace that a new driver would, such as stopping several feet before an intersection.

Despite the reservations with the efficacy of driverless cars, Metz did say that the novelty of riding in a driverless car made it a fun and interesting experience, which is an aspect I'm glad he mentioned.

After describing the current state of driverless cars in San Francisco, Metz launches into some vital background information. He describes the birth of the driverless car movement, and how large companies such as Google began the "moonshot" of making it a reality.

The Daily is particularly good at building historical context to tell a full story of any given subject, and it's done very well here. After describing the initial launch of the technology, he then discusses more important context in the issues that began popping up with driverless cars, such as fatal accidents.

These aspects of the past negative and positive eventually lead to a crucial moment in the fate of driverless cars; a meeting of San Francisco regulators which would either confirm or deny Waymo and Cruise's ability to operate driverless cars in the city.

Should they be denied, the entire fate of driverless cars could be stopped dead in it's tracks, as other cities would likely follow suit. As part of the meeting, many citizens appeared to voice support in favor of or against the driverless cars.

Racism, safety, the economy, innovation, and more were topics discussed at the meeting. The New York Times included many voice clips from the meeting which give necessary detail to the piece.

The episode ends by asking what the future of driverless cars will look like. Will they be safer? Will they be more economic? These are things that are yet to be determined but are important to consider and be aware of.

The driverless car phenomena in San Francisco is something that I had no idea whatsoever was going on. I didn't know the technology was in a state that made it commercially viable yet. But this episode was a brief but highly informative look into the future we may all live in soon.