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A client climbs into a Waymo in San Francisco in 2024. The driverless cars have become ubiquitous in the city, and and a new Chronicle poll shows how residents feel about the robotaxis.<\/p>\n
Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
When\u00a0robotaxis<\/a> first appeared on San Francisco streets, people weren\u2019t sure whether to treat them as a captivating novelty<\/a>, an extremely forward-thinking invention or a rolling symbol of gentrification<\/a>.<\/p>\n Waymo\u2019s white electric Jaguars with weird spinning sensors were, at one time, the most polarizing things on the road. They inspired fandom and incited rage, made a perfect selfie-backdrop for tourists and drew a reputation for blocking emergency vehicles or crushing small animals<\/a>. Critics of the vehicles tried to outsmart and paralyze<\/a> them by placing traffic cones on their hoods.<\/p>\n But now we know what people really think. And it\u2019s largely positive. A new Chronicle poll suggests that in an era of autonomous vehicle ubiquity,\u00a0 San Franciscans have come to accept and value these machines.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The survey of 1,077 registered voters showed that 42% of respondents consider self-driving cars \u201ca good thing,\u201d dwarfing the 18% who react negatively. Thirty-nine percent harbor mixed emotions and 2% are not sure how to respond. Opinions largely fell along ideological lines, with self-identified progressives more skeptical of the vehicles (25% pro, 30% against, 43% conflicted) while liberals, moderates and conservatives are more likely to embrace them. (Moderates, for example, were 54% pro-AV, 10% anti and 35% ambivalent.).<\/p>\n None of the results surprise former San Francisco transportation chief Jeffrey\u00a0Tumlin, who would put himself in the \u201cmixed emotions\u201d camp. He said it\u2019s typical for people to cautiously approve of technology that presents advantages (convenience, strict adherence to the speed limit), and disadvantages (congestion, a tendency to park in bike lanes).<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Progressives will naturally voice more suspicion than moderates or conservatives about any breed\u00a0 of technology that threatens to displace labor, Tumlin said. Much of the lobbying for tighter restrictions of Waymo and other AV companies comes from unions representing human union ride-hail drivers. This opposition mirrors the resistance to Uber and Lyft 15 years ago, when those companies represented a Big Tech force trying to squash the taxi industry.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Brad Templeton, a self-driving car consultant based in Sunnyvale, said he understands people\u2019s panic about job disruption. At the same time, he believes progressive opposition to AVs may stem from general mistrust of corporations (Waymo is owned by Alphabet, Zoox by Amazon) or distaste for artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n Waymo\u2019s driverless robotaxis have had multiple inflection points in San Francisco, including their performance during the massive PG&E outage in December.<\/p>\n Aidin Vaziri\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n \u201cPeople used to be very scared of elevators,\u201d Templeton said, citing an ancient culture war over a 19th century apparatus. \u201cAnd remember, elevators used to have drivers, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Politics weren\u2019t the only driver of perception in the Chronicle\u2019s AV poll. It also showed a slight generation gap, with younger and middle-aged people being more open to this new iteration of mobility than people over age 65. Men were somewhat more favorable of autonomous vehicles than women, and college-educated people were a little more receptive than their non-college-educated counterparts. Perhaps, Templeton said, the demographic disparities are a bellwether for how people feel about the future, and whether they think technology will help or hurt them.<\/p>\n San Francisco has long held a fraught relationship with innovation on public roads, with good reason,\u00a0Tumlin said. Uber and Lyft barrelled onto the scene with promises to alleviate congestion, compliment public transit and make it possible to live without a car. In reality, studies by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority found these ride-hails accounted for two-thirds of the<\/a> traffic increase between 2010 and 2016, largely because they offered quicker, easier transport than buses or rail, at a price point people could rationalize. AVs are just as vexing, since they drive around empty at least part of the time. Technologists have a term of art for this practice: \u201cghost miles.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n By increasing traffic overall, AVs also create the conditions for more crashes, even if they don\u2019t cause the collisions themselves, Tumlin noted. He\u2019s long questioned the reports that Waymo and its competitors release, finding that their fleets make streets safer. Not to mention they are still developing the hardware and software: Last month\u00a0Waymo voluntarily recalled nearly 3,800 vehicles after one of its robotaxis drove onto a flooded lane in San Antonio and got swept into a creek.<\/p>\n Such one-off incidents haven\u2019t discouraged Templeton, who sees AVs as far more reliable and compliant than human motorists.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the first time in history, we\u2019re gonna get cars on the road that are well-behaved,\u201d he said. \u201cRight now, we have humans. We try to make the humans behave by making laws, and having police enforce them, and hoping the humans will be afraid of getting tickets. But with robots, we can just go to the company, give them a rule, and the robots will just obey it.\u201d<\/p>\n In the coming decades, Templeton surmised, San Francisco and other cities could use AV technology to make transportation more orderly. If traffic is a problem, why not restrict the number of vehicles that can a given zone or artery? If efficiency is a problem, how about telling the robots they have to carpool? He conjured visions of commuters riding in \u201csolo pods\u201d on a highway and then getting out at a transfer station<\/a> to switch to an autonomous van.<\/p>\n Some parents have used Waymos to help ferry their children around the city.<\/p>\n Bront\u00eb Wittpenn\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n Getting there won\u2019t be easy. Because technology moves faster than the government, there will likely always be tension between AV companies and their regulators. As the dominant player in the market, Waymo has grappled with advancing its own commercial interests while also cooperating with the Department of Motor Vehicles and the California Utilities Commission. Those entities have barred the company from offering certain services\u00a0\u2014 like rides for unaccompanied minors<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 in spite of growing demand.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s the struggle to placate a fickle public. Even as more players enter the AV market, some people remain skeptical. San Franciscans haven\u2019t forgotten the December power outages, during which hundreds of Waymos became paralyzed in intersections because they couldn\u2019t navigate without stoplights. Cellphone videos of AV blunders still often go viral on social media.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is definitely going to be a debate about this technology, because people are afraid of change,\u201d Templeton said, casting a sober eye at all the challenges that AV companies are facing. He\u2019s optimistic that with more exposure, the anxiety over self-driving cars will dissipate. Just like it did with elevators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A client climbs into a Waymo in San Francisco in 2024. 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