While debate surrounds whether or not driverless taxicabs will be good for a community, there seems to be one benefit, at least for the city of New Orleans: Waymo, currently testing its driverless cars around town, is using its vehicles to map out the Crescent City's potholes.
"The purpose of these driver tests that they're currently doing is to gather data about the state of our roadways," said Ashley Becnel, a lawyer for the New Orleans City Council. "I know one of the specific metrics they mentioned to us is that they're creating a detailed map of potholes."
Becnel said Waymo is going to share that information with the city.
"I'm sure that will be voluminous," she said. "They are working to gather that data, but we need a lot more information about what that looks like, how they implement that in practice, because it's also, as we all know, something that changes frequently."
Becnel said it is one of many things about driverless taxis they are keeping front-of-mind, as they work on what regulations will be needed for Waymo to expand to offering driverless rides for hire.
