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1. Embed this notice
   Lauren Weinstein (lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org)'s status on Thursday, 26-Jun-2025 08:44:27 JST Lauren Weinstein

   L.A. residents are finding creative (and simple) ways to disable disruptive Waymo robotaxis (as I predicted long ago would come to pass with autonomous vehicles).

   https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/25/us/santa-monica-waymo-battles

   • Embed this notice
     Lauren Weinstein (lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org)'s status on Thursday, 26-Jun-2025 08:44:17 JST Lauren Weinstein

     in reply to

     • mike805
     • Wulfy

     @mike805 @n_dimension I've lived in L.A. my whole life, in various sections of the city. I've watched the changes good and bad, increases in traffic, everything. And I'll say this. WE DON'T NEED OR WANT GODDAMNED ROBOTAXIS. Period. Full Stop. And attempts to force them down our throats by Big Tech will be regretted by those increasingly fascist firms. Anyone who knows me knows how painful it is for me to say this.

     I've been working on the Net since early ARPANET days at the first ARPANET site at UCLA. I've worked inside Google. I still have many friends at Google -- that is, the ones who haven't already resigned or been fired.

     Robotaxis are a means toward total control and surveillance of populations by authorities. Not so much in and of themselves, but as part of the fascist dream of eliminating human drivers entirely.

     Things have changed. The factors that used to apply no longer can be taken at face value. If I sound fed up with the direction tech is taking now, you're damned right.

   • Embed this notice
     mike805 (mike805@noc.social)'s status on Thursday, 26-Jun-2025 08:44:18 JST mike805

     in reply to

     • Wulfy

     @n_dimension @lauren Specifically thinking of LA area here. It is obvious that the people who run this city are not capable of fixing the transit in any reasonable time. Yes there is some, and people who happen to live and work around it use it, but otherwise it's faster to drive despite the traffic.

     Robotaxis can be deployed quickly without any infrastructure building. Technologies like that usually win out, whether they are a utopian ideal or not.

     Just move the charging location.

     藤井太洋, Taiyo Fujii repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Wulfy (n_dimension@infosec.exchange)'s status on Thursday, 26-Jun-2025 08:44:19 JST Wulfy

     in reply to

     • mike805

     @mike805 @lauren

     #Robotaxi is not a solution to a city transit problem.
     It's a solution to a #crapitalism problem.
     *ANY* portion of profits diminished by labor is unacceptable to capitalists.

   • Embed this notice
     mike805 (mike805@noc.social)'s status on Thursday, 26-Jun-2025 08:44:20 JST mike805

     in reply to

     @lauren Human-driven taxis are never going to replace private cars, unless you bring in a servile class to drive them.

     Robot taxis could eventually be the primary mode of transport in cities. You could then have smaller parking lots, and charge people to park.

     Robot taxis could either seat four with hard partitions between them so people would feel safe sharing, or they could be half-wide and share the lanes.

     They can form convoys when they are all going to the same area, reducing traffic.

   • Embed this notice
     Lauren Weinstein (lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org)'s status on Thursday, 26-Jun-2025 08:44:24 JST Lauren Weinstein

     in reply to

     • mike805

     @mike805 They are no better a solution than human-driven taxis, which would at least provide work for the drivers and be far better suited to deal with exceptional situations. And not further enrich fascist Big Tech.

   • Embed this notice
     mike805 (mike805@noc.social)'s status on Thursday, 26-Jun-2025 08:44:25 JST mike805

     in reply to

     @lauren So why can't these charging lots be somewhere outside the city? Or at the top of a mall's parking structure, which is presumably empty at night? Electric robot taxis are a potentially green alternative to LA's parking nightmare, but they need to not be a nuisance or people are going to mess with them.