Is NYC Ready for Waymo?

This weekend I did what I always end up doing when I have time in New York: I walked.

On one of my walks I saw a Waymo self-driving car roll through Midtown. I’d seen and rode in one before in LA but watching one move through the density and unpredictability of NYC felt different. There was something surreal about a machine from the future quietly testing the same streets I was walking, learning how to navigate a place built on chaos and energy.

Moments later, I found myself in a packed comedy club watching new comics take turns stepping onto a tiny stage. Some jokes landed, some didn’t, but every person up there was doing something bold, standing in front of a New York crowd and finding out, in real time, whether their voice connected. It was the opposite of that car outside, deeply human and vulnerable.

That contrast stayed with me. A room full of humans experimenting with humor, and a driverless car experimenting with how to navigate a city, both simultaneously doing the same thing: testing ideas in public. In New York, creativity and innovation don’t just coexist, they collide, and that collision is what keeps the city in motion.

Maybe one of those comics I saw that night will be famous someday. Maybe riding in a car without a driver will feel as normal as hailing a cab.

Knowing this city, the comics could be driving the cars, and the robots will be telling the jokes, but lets hope not.