What would robotaxis mean for the Chicago region?
Robotaxis are already a fixture in cities such as Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco.
Now, autonomous vehicles could begin cruising in Chicago if ride-hailing company Waymo gets its way.
“We currently have about a dozen vehicles mapping and collecting early data in the city,” Waymo spokesperson Chris Bonelli said Thursday.
Waymo is working with state and local officials on a “regulatory path to autonomous operations,” but there’s no date set yet, Bonelli explained.
That regulatory path could include legislation filed by state Rep. Kam Buckner in February seeking to establish an autonomous vehicle pilot project in Cook and three downstate counties.
If the program is operating safely after a three-year trial, self-driving vehicles could be deployed statewide. As of Friday, the Chicago Democrat’s measure, House Bill 4663, was currently parked in the House rules committee.
Will collar counties get their chance at driver-free jaunts? Typically when Waymo enters a new market, “we tend to initially serve the downtown and surrounding area where ride-hail demand is greatest before expanding to the broader metro area,” Bonelli said.
“In San Francisco for example, we began by serving the city limits before expanding down the peninsula to what is now a 260-square-mile area stretching down to San Jose.”
We asked safety expert Steve Casstevens if he’d venture into a robotaxi when Waymo goes live in Chicagoland.
“No, not just yet,” Casstevens said. The retired Buffalo Grove police chief thinks more comprehensive data and testing on autonomous vehicle safety are necessary before deployment in the region.
Casstevens cited a March 1 case in Austin, Texas, when a Waymo vehicle blocked an ambulance rushing to a mass shooting in the city. The vehicle “goes back and forth, and back and forth, like it’s confused, which I’m sure it was.”
“If you have a human in there, it’s very clear what to do. Get out of the way,” said Casstevens, past president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
Waymo also made headlines when an autonomous vehicle hit a child, causing minor injuries, after the elementary student darted into the street near a Los Angeles school on Jan. 23.
California has documented 941 autonomous vehicle crashes since 2014, according to state data.
Waymo contends their drivers are safer than humans and never get “drunk, tired, or distracted.”
After driving over 127 million miles, Waymo’s fleet of electric Jaguars have experienced 10 times fewer “serious injury or worse” crashes and 12 times fewer crashes with pedestrians compared to humans, the company stated.
“This commitment to safety and reliability is what we plan to offer Chicago’s millions of residents and visitors, creating a new mobility option for the region,” officials said.
Transportation analysts advocate for a balance between welcoming innovation and weighing risks.
“It’s good Chicago is opening up to test a new technology but it’s going to be wait and see,” University of Illinois Chicago Urban Transportation Center Director and Professor P.S. Sriraj said.
“I have not seen many substantive studies that are objective that evaluate the efficacy of autonomous transportation.”
Got thoughts on self-driving taxis? Drop an email to mpyke@dailyherald.com.
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