Last week, I was running outside on a beautiful day in Atlanta’s suburbs by the East Beltline. I felt energized until I came to a crosswalk, looked at a car and saw no one behind the wheel. I was in disbelief, doing a double-take and refused to cross the street, distrusting the car's ability to not run me over. Since this encounter, I have noticed many more self-driving Waymo cars around Emory University’s campus and across Atlanta. This abundance of self-driving vehicles strikes me: Waymos should not be all over our roads. The vehicles threaten the livelihood of human drivers and diminish the everyday human interactions that form communities.
Despite Waymo’s technological advances and media buzz in pop culture through music videos and celebrity endorsements, its self-driving vehicles are a threat to the labor force and humanity’s well-being. If self-driving cars replace the thousands of people who drive cars and trucks for a living, many workers will lose their jobs, destabilizing the workforce during a time of massive upheaval across sectors. Furthermore, the intrusion of artificial intelligence (AI) onto the roads will harm humanity’s well-being: Like the intrusion of AI into the arts and other parts of the workforce, these robots being on our roads erode the benefits of daily interpersonal connections between real people.
Waymos and other self-driving cars will undoubtedly create labor issues because of the direct replacement of actual drivers, adding to rising unemployment rates caused by AI. According to statistics from 2022, 12.3 million working Americans are employed in the transportation industry. From Uber, Lyft and DoorDash drivers to truckers and bus drivers, our country’s mobility depends on these workers, and Waymo is beginning to replace these jobs. Further, many of these Americans can be classified as working class, meaning that the rise of this technology is disrupting the livelihood of people who have to work hard to survive in today’s challenging economy.
As a young adult soon to enter the workforce, AI’s rapid evolution in our society worries me. With private technology companies like Waymo expanding AI’s reach in our daily lives, we no longer get a say in what our future looks like. By allowing Waymo to test its vehicles on Atlanta's streets, our city is contributing to the rapid rise of an AI-dominated future, creating even more fear about how far AI-powered technology will keep intruding on our daily lives.
As Waymos replace important moments of human connection, daily life risks becoming increasingly transactional and emotionally detached. When people ride with Waymo, instead of interacting with a driver in a vehicle, they sit silently and alone. Instead of a delivery driver bringing your food to your door, in Atlanta and other cities, food is now often delivered by a robotic machine. These small interpersonal interactions with drivers are important because human presence enhances our well-being and comfort. Relying on machines for tasks people once performed risks normalizing isolation and missing out on spontaneous human connection, especially for those who already experience loneliness.
Although Waymos may have wide-reaching negative consequences, it is true that human drivers are not perfect. There are many instances when pedestrians and drivers act unpredictably on the roads — in Atlanta alone, there are tens of thousands of car accidents every year. But, Waymos are not equipped for handling precarious situations.
For instance, in San Francisco, two men got in front of a woman’s Waymo and harassed her, asking for her number and shouting inappropriate comments. The Waymo is programmed to stop when it detects an object in front of its path, no matter what that object is. Consequently, the woman was left in a dangerous situation, stuck in a stationary car and relying on ill-equipped AI software to protect her from strangers. If her vehicle had a driver or if she were in control of the vehicle, they could have evaded the potentially dangerous situation. Waymos are not equipped to solve problems like humans. Much of driving exists in a gray area that relies on human judgment, intuition and reaction. AI is better suited for the black and white — straightforward driving scenarios with predictable conditions. We need to urge our local leaders to put a stop to self-driving vehicles before experiences like the incident in San Francisco become commonplace — especially in densely populated cities like Atlanta.
As students entering the workforce on the cusp of this technological transformation, we should reflect on how technologies like Waymo’s self-driving cars shape our daily lives and take an active role in determining what our future will look like. A human driver offers what no AI system can: the ability to respond to unexpected situations. Drivers also offer moments of human connection that self-driving cars can never replace.
As concerned Atlanta residents, we should send emails to the Atlanta Department of Transportation and Atlanta Regional Commission expressing concerns about Waymo and how it impacts our city. We should also stop ordering Waymos and choose other rideshare services instead, or opt for public transportation options. Atlanta’s streets should not be used as testing roads for companies’ profit without public input. Maintaining meaningful interactions in daily life matters, and we must push for transportation that prioritizes humanity over the development of AI.
Contact Jordan Abdo at jordan.abdo@emory.edu
