In September 2024, I took my first Waymo ride in Santa Monica.
I was not expecting a 20 minute ride to change how I think about driving, cities, and mobility.
But it did.
Within 90 days, I bought a Tesla with the newest self driving hardware.
Now I use self driving 99 percent of the time.
I sit in the driver’s seat because the law requires it, but I am not the one doing the driving.
The part that catches me off guard is not the technology.
It is how few people realize what is already possible.
Whenever someone rides with me, the reaction is the same.
“You are really not touching anything?”
“It can drive through this?”
“This is allowed?”
It shows how far public awareness is behind where the technology actually is.
I read a blog post from Fred Wilson
@avc
earlier today that pushed me to think about this even more. Some people are living with autonomy every day. Others have no idea that it is already here.
I’ve been eagerly following news about which autonomous vehicle services are coming to Dallas.
Waymo is rolling out service in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio in the coming weeks. Dallas residents have already seen the mapping cars.
This is not a tiny experiment. It is a major deployment of a system that has already been tested in dense, unpredictable environments.
And Dallas is not getting just one network.
It is getting several.
• Waymo
• Avride through Uber
• Lyft with Mobileye
• Robotaxi
• More coming after that
A city goes from zero to multiple autonomous providers in a short window. That is the moment when adoption accelerates.
I am a developer of apartments. As someone who builds in cities, I am most interested in what this means for the built environment. In the long run, this shift will change how we plan, design, and value real estate.
Here are a few things I am watching:
• Parking economics will shift. Structured parking becomes less necessary over time, which affects costs and feasibility.
• Curb space becomes more valuable than parking garages. Pick up and drop off zones matter more than stalls. Cities will need better curb management.
• Commute patterns change. If you are not driving, an extra 20 to 30 minutes feels different. That expands the range of viable neighborhoods.
• Housing demand adjusts. Areas once considered too inconvenient become competitive because mobility improves.
• Safety improves. Fewer collisions change insurance, infrastructure planning, and how we design intersections.
• Mixed use evolves. Retail, logistics, and residential buildings adapt around autonomous access and more efficient circulation.
• Land values shift. Proximity to job centers and transit is still important, but autonomy starts to level the playing field.
This is not a 2035 idea.
This is a 2027 reality.
After almost a year of having a robot drive me every day, I have reached a point where I trust the system in many situations more than I trust myself. It sees in every direction, it reacts faster, and it does not get distracted.
People who say “I will believe it when I see it” are about to see it in Dallas.
The technology is here.
The awareness just has not caught up yet.
And when it does, our cities and our developments will change in ways most people are not thinking about.
www.nytimes.com
