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Waymo in Singapore
My first Waymo ride changed how I felt about self-driving cars. I’m excited for Singapore, and wondering how we’ll balance that progress with drivers’ livelihoods.
source: Singapore, Next Stop: Bringing Scalable, Safe Autonomous Mobility to the Lion City · The Waymo Team
#waymo #singapore #self-driving cars
Wow. Waymo is coming to Singapore, with a public ride-hailing launch planned for 2028.
The first time I saw a Waymo was on the roads in Mountain View during YC in the summer of 2019. I finally got to ride in one last year in San Francisco. It was surreal, and it completely flipped a switch for me on self-driving cars.
That ride made the future feel real. Now the thought of seeing Waymos on the roads back home is pretty wild. We’ve come a long way.
Many people here haven’t had a chance to ride in one yet. I’m excited for more of us to experience it for ourselves.
That said, ride-hailing is also an important livelihood here, and a fallback when other work falls through. CNA has reported on people turning to platform work between jobs, including a private-hire driver hoping to return to a full-time role.
LTA says the rollout won’t outpace its ability to retrain and support affected drivers. I wonder how that balance will work in practice, both for people who drive for a living today and for locals who may need that fallback in the future.