Waymo Is Beating Uber in the Self-Driving Car Race. That's Bad News for Traffic.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. Last fall, Zipcar founder Robin Chase released a 10-point manifesto with this philosophy: Let's not make the same mistakes with driverless cars that we made the first time we introduced the automobile into cities. It's an urbanist's platform in support of a future where we devote less city space to cars, not more. To that end, the 10th principle is that autonomous vehicles in dense urban areas should be operated only in shared fleets--as taxis, not as private cars. In addition to its role in American folklore, personal vehicle ownership has exerted enormous influence on the shape and feel of our cities, requiring expressway construction, surrounding restaurants and shops with moats of parking spaces, and injecting traffic and parking concerns into the heart of urban politics.