✊🏙 Uber CEO wants Uber buses 🚌 Safety concerns over driverless cars 💀 Seattle transit ridership surge 📈

After the unexpected settlement in the Waymo/Uber trial last week, Andrew J. Hawkins took a look at what we learned, and showed there are some major reasons to be concerned about how safe autonomous vehicles are or will be. Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick called self-driving cars a “zero-sum game” and former Waymo and Uber engineer Anthony Levandowski said they needed “to think through the strategy to take all the shortcuts we can.” 😳

This shouldn’t be seen as a problem exclusive to Uber. Hawkins demonstrates that Waymo and the traditional auto companies are pursuing similar strategies that should have us all worried about the safety of autonomous cars.

Autonomous driving systems give cars and trucks eco-driving skills. Their computers and sensors could, however, consume enough electricity to negate this anticipated green dividend.

Uber’s new CEO has finally admitted the obvious: the ride-hailing company is competing with public transit and even wants to run its own buses (which it’s already doing in Egypt). But should we really trust a company like Uber to deliver a service that equitably serves all residents? (See issue 7 for more.)

Uber released its Q4 2017 numbers this week, and Hubert Horan continued his excellent series exploring Uber and its business model. The company lost $4.5 billion in 2017, up from $2.8 billion in 2016, and cut driver compensation by $2.2 billion.

I’ve written a lot about Sidewalk Labs’ project in Toronto (see issues 16 & 19 for more) but I’m not sure I’ve read a better piece than the one that Molly Sauter published this week. It runs through the major concerns with the project, and why Sidewalk’s plan will likely not turn out as promised.

Google sister-company Sidewalk Labs’ Toronto project wants to let people rent public space, but there are real-world consequences that the company is ignoring.

Transit and elected officials experiencing ridership losses in recent years need to better understand what’s causing those declines before they can reverse them. But recognizing the factors that drive ridership down is not always simple.

Between 2010 and 2017, downtown Seattle has added 60,000 jobs. Over the same period, car trips dropped by 4,500, while the number of transit users increased by 41,500—a 48% increase.

Despite light-rail expansion, transit ridership has been declining in Southern California. This is largely explained by changes in immigration policy, increased car ownership, and impacts from ride hailing.

Characters is TV shows and movies tend to use cars, but getting over the roadblocks that stop positive portrayals of transit in pop culture could help get more people to embrace it.