Imagine ordering a rideshare service from the bar, and when the car pulls up, there’s no driver. So, you hop right in the back seat and head to your destination. That could be a reality in the Crescent City soon.
New Orleans is set to become the newest city with driverless vehicles from Waymo offering rideshare service. Waymo earlier sent a “limited fleet” of its vehicles to the Crescent City to train their driverless AI systems on “varied road features.”
In a city like New Orleans where potholes, traffic light outages, and missing street signs are considered normal, it must have been an interesting test of the Waymo vehicles’ capabilities. Now, a fully autonomous rideshare service could be offered by the company as early as next year, right here in New Orleans.
Mark Rosa, a Professor of Finance at UNO, says the idea would be interesting to see in practice in the Crescent City.
“I could see this working and I would embrace the technology,” Rosa emphasized when talking about the driverless vehicles. He notes that New Orleans is a city where tourists and business conferences regularly flock to, driving up the need for rideshare services. There is certainly a demand for this type of technology.
Ultimately, he thinks the success of Waymo’s model will come down to safety.
“How successful are the cars, how is the driving experience, how hard is risk management within that process, and how do you protect the occupants?” were the most pressing questions Rosa says he'd like answered.
Rosa sees the attractiveness of driverless rideshares in a city like New Orleans. Beyond being convenient, it offers a unique and interesting experience for locals and visitors alike. However, he does have some questions about how the implementation of driverless vehicles would impact Louisiana’s already sky-high insurance rates.
“Insurance rates in Louisiana are already so high currently that a lot of businesses can’t buy insurance routinely. Now, you have this new technology come out … especially one associated with driving and the liability around that. That’s going to be a whole new dimension when it comes to accidents for who is at fault and liabilities there. What is that going to do to rates?” Rosa added.
These are all questions that will need to be ironed out in time.