Article - "Your Waymo got pulled over. What happens next in Phoenix?"
Saw this headline in a news feed on other topics, and was intrigued by the multiple discussion starters for social studies/business classes. Economics of driverless cars; civic issues (which cities allow them, which don't, and why?); labor impacts over time; not to mention the original safety issue at the heart of this article.
Jay LeBlanc
8/5/20251 min read
This article was from the Arizona Republic/AZ Central last month (the original article is linked below) but made it into a news feed I glanced at this morning. I'm just going to throw a few links in that could be good discussion starters (as mentioned above) and some background material on the whole topic.
P.S. - The article notes that the most common answer to the original question is - 1) the autonomous vehicles sense emergency vehicles and "should" pull over; and 2) the police dispatch records list the event as "UNABLE TO ISSUE CITATION TO COMPUTER".
Original Article: "Your Waymo got pulled over. What happens next in Phoenix?", Arizona Republic, https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2024/07/02/what-happens-when-a-waymo-gets-pulled-over-in-phoenix/74197111007/
Articles on the economics of driverless vehicles:
"Autonomous driving’s future: Convenient and connected", McKinsey & Company, Jan 2023, https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/automotive-and-assembly/our-insights/autonomous-drivings-future-convenient-and-connected#/
"Three Overlooked Benefits of Self-Driving Cars", The Daily Economy, May 2025, https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/three-overlooked-benefits-of-self-driving-cars/
"Uber is close to completing its quest to become the ultimate robotaxi app", The Verge, Jul 2025, https://www.theverge.com/news/707347/uber-baidu-robotaxi-deal-autonomous-ridehail
"Baidu’s supercheap robotaxis should scare the hell out of the US", The Verge, Nov 2024, https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/22/24303299/baidu-apollo-go-rt6-robotaxi-unit-economics-waymo
"What might be the economic implications of autonomous vehicles?", Economics Observatory (U.K.), Aug 2024, https://www.economicsobservatory.com/what-might-be-the-economic-implications-of-autonomous-vehicles
"The Robotaxi Competition Is Heating Up Between Waymo, Tesla and Zoox", Forbes, Jul 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg7XLICePGY
Ethical/Legal/Civic considerations:
"The Ethical Considerations of Self-Driving Cars", Montreal AI Ethics Institute, May 2022, https://montrealethics.ai/the-ethical-considerations-of-self-driving-cars/
"Should Self-Driving Cars Have Ethics?", NPR, Oct 2018, https://www.npr.org/2018/10/26/660775910/should-self-driving-cars-have-ethics
"Who Is Liable in a Self-Driving Car Crash?", Nolo, Jul 2025, https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/if-youre-hit-by-a-self-driving-car.html
Video - "Congressman pitches law that could change way driverless car companies operate", NBC Bay Area, Jul 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDdrj40Fz5M