Friday’s Headlines Are Not Ready for Prime Time

Tech companies and automakers keep pushing autonomous vehicles and don't seem to care whether they're safe or not.

By Blake Aued

12:01 AM EDT on October 31, 2025

Wikimedia Commons

Tesla rolled out a new self-driving mode called — seriously — "Mad Max" that causes vehicles to speed and swerve in and out of traffic, which almost immediately drew the attention of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. (Ars Technica)
Despite the potential dangers, the CEO of Waymo predicts that society will accept the deaths inevitably caused by driverless cars as long as the product is safer overall than human drivers. (Futurism)
Meanwhile, Uber's CEO predicts that all cars will be autonomous in 20 years, comparing driving in the future to horseback riding (Business Insider). The rideshare company will launch its first robotaxis in Waymo's stomping ground of San Francisco sometime in 2026 (Electrek).
Introducing e-scooters to a neighborhood results in higher demand for rideshares and cuts into bikeshare usage, according to the University of Illinois.
A new study says manufacturing an electric vehicle has a bigger carbon footprint than making an internal combustion model, but EVs make up for that in two years with lower tailpipe emissions, and cause less than half as much environmental damage over their lifetimes. (Associated Press)
Smart Cities Dive interviewed the new CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority.
Miami's new bus rapid transit line suffered from delays due to signal priority failures during its debut earlier this week. (Herald; paywall)
Sound Transit may not need a second rail tunnel underneath downtown Seattle after all. (The Urbanist)
Nashville is putting the onus on pedestrians for their own safety by instructing them to make eye contact with drivers before crossing the street. (Banner)
D.C. public officials shared their thoughts on National Week Without Driving. (Greater Greater Washington)
A 30-mile trail connecting nine Texas parks also serves to control floods and protect wildlife. (Landscape Architecture)