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Hey, everybody. 
Welcome back to the Elon Musk 

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Podcast. 
This is a show where we discuss 

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the critical crossroads, the 
Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The 

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Boring Company and Neurolink. 
I'm your host, Will Walden. 

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Waymo is bringing its driverless
cars to New York City. 

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The company quietly filed a 
permit to start mapping the 

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streets of Manhattan in August, 
and it will begin testing its 

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autonomous vehicles in the city 
this fall. 

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This marks the first time that 
Alphabet Self Driving Division 

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is set foot in the city with its
own fleet. 

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Now, Waymo isn't launching a 
robo taxi service here, at least

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not yet. 
These initial runs will keep a 

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human driver behind the wheel 
with no autonomous driving mode 

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activated. 
Still, the presence of Waymo's 

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white Jaguar eye paces rolling 
through the most congested and 

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chaotic traffic grid in the 
country. 

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Signal said the company is 
laying down the groundwork for 

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something much, much bigger. 
Wemo confirmed it's sending 

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vehicles to collect data 
throughout Manhattan. 

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These runs will include 
scenarios like driving through 

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the tunnels, over bridges and 
into underground parking 

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garages. 
New York presents a very dense 

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technical challenge most other 
U.S. cities can't even come 

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close to. 
Wemo is betting that mastering 

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New York City could help it 
scale elsewhere with more 

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confidence. 
And the New York City Department

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of Transportation approved 
Waymo's permit on August 6th of 

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this year, and Waymo submitted 
the request under a state DMV 

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pilot program that allows 
autonomous vehicle testing with 

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very strict limitations. 
Now, this is unlike Phoenix or 

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San Francisco that Waymo 
operates in. 

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Now. 
These cars must stay in manual 

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mode at all times and include 
two trained human safety drivers

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inside the vehicle. 
So this isn't Waymo's first time

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in New York City, though they 
went in there for the permit, 

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but they were also upstate. 
It's the first time the company 

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will operate its own branded 
vehicles in the city. 

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In a 2021, Waymo quietly ran 
Lidar mapping tests using rented

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vehicles without Waymo logos. 
Sneaky now. 

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That earlier effort made some 
initial geographic data 

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available, but this new phase 
brings the project into the 

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public Waymo branded cars. 
Waymo's already logged over 

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1,000,000 driverless miles in 
Phoenix in San Francisco, and 

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those cities allowed it to 
launch full autonomous ride 

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handling services with no one 
behind the wheel. 

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In contrast, New York presents a
high friction environment filled

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with unpredictable pedestrians. 
People do whatever they want 

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there. 
Double parked trucks, there's 

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deliveries all the time, people 
on bikes, people weaving in and 

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out of traffic in an endless 
stream of yellow cabs and Ubers 

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that are trying to take over the
roadways. 

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The exact type of environment 
the current EV systems still 

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struggle to handle consistently.
But if they can nail this, they 

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can defeat Tesla. 
The city's rules reflect the 

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challenge of the actual city. 
Any autonomous vehicle test in 

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the city must remain under 
manual control and carry 2 train

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safety operators at all times. 
Because nobody knows what's 

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going to happen at any time when
you're driving in the city. 

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It's wild. 
And the state DMV requires 

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detailed incident reports, 
driving logs, and real time 

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monitoring. 
These regulations limit what 

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Wemo can do in the short term, 
but they also provide a 

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framework for a testing lab the 
Wemo is doing with more edge 

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cases per mile than almost 
anywhere in the country. 

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So it's a condensed set of data 
that Waymo will be gathering by 

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going into the city. 
A Waymo's entry adds pressure to

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other AV companies like Cruz and
Tesla, which have largely stayed

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away from New York due to its 
dense trafficked and strict 

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regulatory setup. 
And unlike Cruz, which suffered 

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a string of high profile 
incidents in San Francisco, is 

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was suspended in California. 
Waymo has maintained a much 

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cleaner record with regulators. 
The reputation could help ease 

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its path into more difficult 
cities like New York City, or as

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we call it, the city. 
There's also a political angle 

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on this move. 
Waymo began mapping just days 

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before a new congestion pricing 
plan was supposed to launch in 

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the city, which would have 
charged vehicles up to $15.00 

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for entering core business 
zones. 

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The plan has now been 
indefinitely paused by the 

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Governor Hochel. 
If congestion pricing returns, 

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it could reshape how ride 
hailing and delivery services 

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operate, making autonomous 
fleets more economically 

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available. 
Now we most expansion comes as 

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Alphabet looks to justify its 
long term bets outside of 

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advertising. 
They need to do other things. 

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They need to make that trillion 
dollars now. 

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They pour billions into way more
already over the past decade, 

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and while it has made technical 
progress, commercial success has

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been kind of slow watching in 
the city, even in this limited 

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form. 
Let's Alphabet signal progress 

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in front of investors without 
promising an actual service 

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route anytime soon. 
So once they roll this out, 

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they're going to see an uptick 
in the stock because they're 

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going to start making money from
these Waymo's immediately. 

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The MTA, which controls much of 
the city's transit 

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infrastructure, though, is not 
commented on Waymo's mapping 

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plans. 
To US, your city. 

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Department of Transfer 
Transportation approved the 

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mapping permit, said it fits 
within the state's EV testing 

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rules. 
Right now, local lawmakers have 

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not raised major objections yet.
Like a change once the vehicles 

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become a visible presence on 
city streets. 

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And depending on if they run 
into a few bikes or, you know, 

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sideswipe any cars, you never 
know what's going to happen in 

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the city. 
So Waymo wants to operate fully 

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driverless cars in New York City
one day. 

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It'll need a separate permit, 
and a regulatory shift from the 

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city has not indicated it's 
ready to make. 

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But getting the data now puts 
Wemo in position to move faster.

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When that window opens, we MO 
has to be before Tesla. 

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It's not promising a launch date
for robotaxis in New York City 

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quite yet. 
It's only confirmed the data 

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collection is underway and that 
their vehicles will appear 

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publicly this fall. 
That alone marks a shift in how 

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the company is thinking about 
its national expansion. 

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Think about it like this. 
Tesla is moving out with their 

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automated vehicles. 
Waymo, the first to get into New

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York City. 
This is groundbreaking for 

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Waymo. 
They get the millions of people 

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in the city to take Waymo's 
instead of Tesla's. 

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I know people that just don't 
want to be in a Tesla. 

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They will, you know, if they 
have to, but if Waymo's around, 

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they'll probably do it. 
It's very, you know, very, let's

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see, how can I say this? 
You, you kind of get on a team. 

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We're in the city, right? 
And you, you know, that kind of 

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person. 
So if Waymo gets in there early,

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they do a really good job. 
They support local businesses, 

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They'll support local people. 
You know, New York will take 

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care of itself. 
They're testing in New York 

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because no other city offers the
same level of technical 

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complexity. 
There's so many data points. 

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Just park in your car on the 
side of the street. 

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There's so many other cars 
whizzing by. 

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There's people on bikes, people 
on scooters, people on any sort 

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of EV. 
You know, there's people 

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whizzing around you at all 
times. 

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So all those things are 
technical data points. 

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You know? 
If Waymo's system can learn from

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that environment, the company 
may be able to apply those 

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lessons across the entire 
network. 

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So this is kind of like cramming
for a test, right? 

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You get it in New York City, 
you're testing next day, and you

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cram, cram, cram until the test 
comes up. 

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That's what they're doing with 
New York City. 

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It's a data gathering mission 
right now, and nothing more than

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that. 
But if they gather the right 

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data, they'll be able to use 
their AI to interpret it and 

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also use it all across the 
nation and all across the world 

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eventually. 
Hey, thank you so much for 

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listening today. 
I really do appreciate your 

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support. 
If you could take a second and 

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appreciate it. 
It helps out the show 

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tremendously and you'll never 
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tomorrow.