Google Parent Seeks To Launch Driverless Taxis In NYC

Gothamist reports:

A decade after Uber upended New York’s yellow taxi industry, another Silicon Valley giant is threatening to push the city’s cabbies to the brink of extinction.

Waymo, a robot-driven car service owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, applied for a permit Wednesday with the city transportation department to test out a small fleet of autonomous vehicles in an outlined Manhattan zone between Central Park and the Battery, and some parts of Downtown Brooklyn.

If approved, the cars wouldn’t pick up passengers, but would guide themselves while a company employee monitors from the passenger’s seat. The pilot aims to prove they’re safe for New York City’s chaotic streets.

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