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
- 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)
Blake Aued has been doing Streetsblog's daily national news digest for years. He's also an Atlanta Braves fan, which enrages his editor in New York.
Read More:
Streetsblog has migrated to a new comment system. New commenters can register directly in the comments section of any article. Returning commenters: your previous comments and display name have been preserved, but you'll need to reclaim your account by clicking "Forgot your password?" on the sign-in form, entering your email, and following the verification link to set a new password — this is required because passwords could not be carried over during the migration. For questions, contact tips@streetsblog.org.
More from Streetsblog USA
‘Our Roads Are More Than Just Highways’: Democrats Urge U.S. Senate to Fund Transit Programs
A Trump administration proposal recommends massive cuts to popular programs – and it will cost American communities more than they can afford, Senate Democrats say.
May 14, 2026
Thursday’s Headlines Pump It Up
Until you can feel it (gas prices, that is). But you don't really need it (suspending gas taxes).
May 14, 2026
Study: Trump’s Transit Proposal Would Cost the Country So Many Jobs — And Not Just in Cities
... but an increase in funding would be a job-creating juggernaut.
May 13, 2026
Wednesday’s Headlines Are Bought and Paid For
The Union of Concerned Scientists explains how the highway lobby keeps so many of us in our cars.
May 13, 2026
Opinion: It’s Time to Rethink Our Congestion Obsession
Policymakers constantly suggest that we need to spend billions of dollars and bulldoze countless acres of land to fix traffic jams. But do we?
May 13, 2026
![Wikimedia Commons](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/08/San_Francisco_%28CA%2C_USA%29%2C_California_Street%2C_autonomes_Fahrzeug_%28Waymo%29_--_2022_--_2925.jpg/1600px-San_Francisco_%28CA%2C_USA%29%2C_California_Street%2C_autonomes_Fahrzeug_%28Waymo%29_--_2022_--_2925.jpg?20220808130743">Wikimedia%20Commons){kind=link}