Over the past two years, as autonomous driving technology company Waymo worked to gain a foothold in the nation’s capital, Anwar Saleem has continued to play his part as a provider of summertime employment and enrichment opportunities along the H Street NE corridor.
With legislation coming down the pike to provide an infrastructure for Waymo and other autonomous driving companies to operate locally, Saleem said he’s looking forward to many of his youth benefiting from the expansion of an ever-shifting job market.
“Waymo has an opportunity [to] create jobs from the ground up,” Saleem said during a recent community conversation Waymo hosted with The Washington Informer. “It pays well. [While working at WMATA], I started off as a bus cleaner and retired as a mechanic. I’ve never been in school. Waymo would provide the same type of opportunities.”
Saleem, executive director of H Street Main Street, shared the stage at Atlas Performing Arts Center in Northeast as Informer publisher Denise Rolark Barnes moderated a discussion between him and Tiffany M. Moore, Waymo’s head of federal policy and government affairs.
The conversation on June 30, themed “The Future of Safe Equitable Transit in Washington, D.C.,” allowed for nearly an hour of dialogue about traffic safety, job creation, overcoming lack of parking, and the best way to tackle the problem of senior mobility and transportation for city workers.
In speaking about the latter, Saleem called Waymo the ideal means of serving those living in areas that rideshare drivers often avoid. During the conversation, he said that District youth, by virtue of their skill set, can maintain autonomous vehicles (AVs) for the greater good of their communities.
“If you live in Southwest and work in Northwest … people may not want to come [to your neighborhood] because of a perception of what’s going on,” Saleem said on the evening of June 30. “You get another driver to opt out [and] you get higher fees. We’ve seen this. If you have an autonomous vehicle, you don’t have to worry. This is a chance to service neighborhoods equitably.”
Charles Allen Gets to Work
District residents, subject-matter experts, transit advocates and everyone else in between will have a chance to weigh in on the future of AVs during a public hearing the D.C. Council’s Committee on Transportation and the Environment is hosting on July 13 about the Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Authorization Amendment Act.
“I absolutely think it’s essential that we think about working with all of our constituents to think about how technology could or should work across our city,” committee Chair Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) said in his remarks at “The Future of Safe Equitable Transit in Washington, D.C.” conversation.
In May, Allen introduced the Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Authorization Amendment Act with D.C. Council members Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) and Matt Frumin (D-Ward 3). As he explained, the legislation came out of previously conducted hearings, conversations with autonomous driving companies and his request for a D.C. Department of Transportation (DDOT) study that has yet to come to fruition.
At Atlas, Allen told the audience of community members, pedestrian safety advocates and press about what he called the need for proactivity.
“I don’t believe this is an issue of if we would see ourselves being able to do these things. It’s really a matter of when and how,” Allen said. “So, I’m going to be in my seat negotiating with you guys about that system. One of the problems that we are trying to solve for D.C. residents is how do we make this technology and innovation work with us? I also said before [that] I don’t necessarily want D.C. to be the first, but I don’t want it to be the last.”
DDOT didn’t immediately return a request for comment about the timeline of its report.
If approved in its current form, the Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Authorization Amendment Act would: establish a commercial AV program within DDOT to issue permits and monitor compliance; create a phased timeline for commercial AV deployment; establish rules for autonomous driving features; invest in public transit infrastructure and safety measures; support the education, vocational training and workforce development of rideshare drivers; and clarify AV traffic safety and liability laws.
Despite confirmation of AV’s potential for equity and traffic safety, there remains contention about whether automatic vehicle deployment would increase traffic congestion and demand for limited curbside space. Detractors also point to the further marginalization of taxi and rideshare drivers, AVs’ likelihood of discouraging use of other modes of transportation, and questions about who is held liable for crashes and moving violations.
“I think we’ll hear at the hearing some additional concerns to work on,” Allen told The Informer days prior, “but I think that we’re in a spot where the city should and can talk about what the future of AVs looks like in D.C., and I’m laying out a process by which that becomes a possibility.”
An Evening of Questions and Answers
On June 30, guests at The Atlas had questions about how Waymo ensures rider safety and seamless navigation of heavily congested cities. In her responses, Moore said she and her colleagues accounted for various scenarios, including those involving police and technological malfunctions.
“We work with first responders [and] law enforcement, depending on the situation,” Moore said in response to an audience member. “We’d also have technicians….if there was a blackout. If we have an emergency and that happens, we would be able to find a time, we work very closely with our team, then we’ll go back to the vehicle.”
Waymo, headquartered in Mountain View, California, operates in 11 U.S. markets— including Phoenix, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Austin, Atlanta, Miami and Orlando. Since its 2009 inception, Waymo vehicles have covered 220 million miles of terrain, including 100,000 miles in the District via personnel conducting public testing.
At the beginning of the community conversation on June 30, Moore wasted little time touting what she described as AVs’ proven safety record.
“How many of you have been in an accident? Driving on D.C. streets, with [other drivers] on the phone, angry, drinking, coming from establishments,” she asked audience members. “It’s about making our roads safe. Waymo allows us to have safer technology. Over 200 million miles driven [with] 93% fewer crashes. How do we reconcile that 30-40,000 people died? We have the antidote.”
Moore later recounted her efforts to bring Waymo to the District, including several months of engagement with potential business partners and exploration of entry into Maryland and Virginia markets. She also touched on what she described as Waymo’s benefits for caregivers, people of color, workers, and women concerned about their safety.
“Waymo is a safe alternative for women,” Moore said. “I don’t necessarily want lots of questions about who I live with and what I’m doing. When it comes to issues with equity, Waymo doesn’t see color. Autonomous driving machines come to all wards. For workers doing shift work, you want a safe option. Waymo provides that.”
At least one woman said it remains to be seen how Waymo, as a Level 4 AV in a specifically mapped area, can accurately utilize data. Despite assertions that the technology is unbiased, there’s skepticism on her part about the safety of darker-skinned pedestrians.
“If it’s dark, not well lit, it’s raining, the sensors are fogged, and the pedestrian isn’t wearing safety reflectors, is that pedestrian safe in crossing the street in those particular conditions?” said Cheryle Adams, a pedestrian safety advocate who lives near the Wharf in Southwest. “I need some real-world testing done. I need to know [what happens] if a group of people cross the street or if a young child darts out in front of a car.”
Adams said June 15 marked 33 years since a car struck and nearly killed her as she was walking. That moment, she noted, inspired her crusade for pedestrian safety, which includes membership in D.C. Pedestrian Advisory Council.
While speaking in her personal capacity, Adams expressed plans to participate in the July 13 hearing.
“There’s got to be a little bit more for me to feel comfortable with an AV robo-taxi driving around D.C. and all the different circumstances that D.C. presents,” Adams told The Informer. “We have presidential motorcades, [and] ad hoc protests. How does an AV handle those types of things?”
Former Lyft driver and Prince George’s County, Maryland, resident Nadine Maye said she awaits Waymo’s expansion into Maryland. For the time being, she is advocating for the inclusion of children in discussions.
“If a parent wanted to send their 12-year-old to an after-school program, tutoring, or sports, could that parent put their child in the vehicle alone?” Maye asked in her exchange with The Informer. “How would that affect children? Would there be different liability issues if something happened to a child in the vehicle as opposed to an adult?”
In her previous life, Maye often and readily took patrons to and from communities east of the Anacostia River. Years after transitioning into another career, Maye continues to follow the market that sustained her. Though the AV infrastructure hasn’t totally taken shape as of yet, she predicts an outcome where AVs will share space with traditional rideshare and taxi companies without controversy.
“There’s still a need for a human driver to be in a vehicle,” Maye told The Informer. “Is there room for it? Will it upset the market completely? I don’t think so. Just like with the other rideshare companies, there needs to be more conversation [and] regulation put in place.”
