Cliff Bargar
@cliffbar
San Franciscan (via Boston). (Surgical) robots, bikes, trains, etc
Great piece, this also applies to people and communities who consider themselves apolitical/nonpolitical. They may think that they can ignore Musk’s politics, or be unaffected by it, but even for those primarily on Twitter for technical discussions they engage a very skewed portion of the population
@nextdoorsv.bsky.social some of your favorite content has made it to LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/posts/sarah-... Development on the west side of SF = condos on Pompeii
Have you seen media coverage of this? All I see is one sentence in the @sfchronicle.com but these videos make it seem like @waymo.bsky.social was responsible for a large portion of the congestion www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/g...
Part of what is so stupid about this is that Chakrabarti broadly supports Wiener's housing policies and hasn't offered any specific alternatives
@scottwiener.bsky.social has passed multiple bills making drugs less expensive for patients or expanding access to multiple types of health care while @saikatforcongress.bsky.social has accomplished diddly squat in this area. What an an astoundingly disingenuous campaign
But just now from Caltrain at Hillsdale station I saw not one but two planes with AI ads
I was surprised to see that Hong Kong streetcar ads might be starting to rival the Bay Area last week…
Coming to tonight's BATAC meeting? The slides for the Bikes on Board policy are up - here are a few key portions www.caltrain.com/media/36782/...
Of course Musk also just said that Optimus is not playing a material role yet in their manufacturing, but if his plan works out then it would also lead to requiring much less of a workforce…
They've been trying and failing to get data that isn't publicly available www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...
Come on, anyone who's followed Wiener for years should have no trouble identifying a range of stances he’s taken which code as “moderate” in San Francisco
In fact, while Waymo is becoming more aggressive they clearly are not learning to behave more like people in the way that Riggs implies (at least not in any positive sense). Numerous recent examples of Waymo still driving into standing water or crime scenes or illegally passing school busses
Meanwhile Riggs's expertise on Waymo comes primarily from riding in them a lot. The level of analysis he provides is often along the lines of what he suggested in this article last summer, anthropomorphizing these vehicles in a way that does not match reality www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/w...
But despite the @sfchronicle.com implying otherwise, Riggs's primary appointment, work experience, and educational background is in Urban Planning. Nothing against planners - they have an incredibly important role to play in conversations around AV policy. But...
In every piece the @sfchronicle.com identifies Riggs as an "engineering professor" in every piece without noting the clear conflict of interest, that Waymo has helped pay his salary. I would wager that most readers also assume that he has a background in engineering, robotics, AI, automotive, etc
On a tangential note, the @sfchronicle.com (@rswansf.bsky.social, Morris, Talerico) really need to stop quoting Riggs in every piece about @waymo.bsky.social. He's quoted here making a claim that he has no means of verifying and no true relevant expertise for.
The real story here is that @waymo.bsky.social kept operating until the Mayor of San Francisco personally texted their co-CEO (and then still took several hours before actually halting operations). Most cities served by Waymo won't have a direct line to the top when something goes wrong.
The @sfchronicle.com's framing here totally misses the mark. On this issue the test of Mayor Lurie's leadership came early in his term, and by hitching his cart to @waymo.bsky.social he already failed.
So many great points made in this article that are generally overlooked by AV boosters. This one I've highlighted before - without breaking down the data by SW version we really have no idea how safe each version is, and whether it's improving or regressing, and there are no standards for testing
Didn't have my phone with me but I saw my first @waymo.bsky.social pickup in Sunnyvale today and the vehicle had stopped fully blocking the only lane of San Zeno Way in its direction (which had no sidewalk on its side and a double yellow line) at the end of a semi-blind turn.
So has Greer Stone had a change of heart or is he just full of it? xcancel.com/PaloAltoYimb...