[spunker540]

now imagine a bus, but its smaller and private only for you. for me that is true freedom! not only can you hop in as drunk as you want, and fall asleep, but you can also control the climate and the music and spread out. and when you arrive the waymo just drives away and you don’t have to think about it ever again in your life

[runarberg]

Like I said earlier, this technology does not exist. And even if it did, the infrastructure required for everyone to own and operate such a car would be orders of magnitude more expensive and much much much politically harder choice to approve then to build out public transit and to provide access services.

[gs17]

They specifically referred to it as a "waymo". Everyone wouldn't own one, they would hire one for the trip, like you can already do with a non-autonomous rental car for a cross-country trip.

[runarberg]

Own or rent one, doesn’t matter, my point still stands. Access vans, busses, trains, plains, etc. are all technology which exists. Worst case your state can subsidize you a hired assistant with a drivers license who can do the driving. These are all technologies which exist today, and are available to mobility impaired individuals in many parts of the world. Only extremely limited areas have a "waymo" available and only for a limited number of trips. The former can be implemented as soon as there is a political will (and already has been implemented in many parts of the world) while the latter requires faith in a technology that does not exist yet.