Transportation For America AVs aren’t solving our transportation problems. They’re automating them.

As part of limited, fare-free pilots conducted by these companies, San Franciscans have experienced exactly the chaos that replacing imperfect humans with impartial computers was supposed to solve. AVs are assumed to be the solution to dangerous streets, traffic congestion, and transportation emissions. There are documented cases of AVs driving away from police, cruising down sidewalks, and coming to a dead halt when cell service is bad. That’s why individuals and advocacy organizations who exist to make transportation safer have made it clear: without changes to transportation policy, AVs aren’t set up to solve our problems, just automate them. AV-makers—including the robo taxi companies in San Francisco —aren’t trying to solve these problems.