Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm telling you easy
Speaker 1: Boston News Radio.
Speaker 2: First of all, I want to thank everyone again who
Speaker 2: took the time last hour to talk about the Patriots.
Speaker 2: I know we're not a sports show, but I do
Speaker 2: like to work in different topics every once in a
Speaker 2: while and got a little bit of a different topic
Speaker 2: to talk about tonight. In the ten o'clock hour we're
Speaker 2: going to right now, I want to talk about self
Speaker 2: driving cars. I recently had a ride in a self
Speaker 2: driving car on the streets of San Francisco. I can
Speaker 2: get into that a little bit later on during this hour,
Speaker 2: because I want to start off with Mark shield drop
Speaker 2: of Triple A. Mark, welcome back to Night's Side. We
Speaker 2: normally hit you in the eight o'clock hour. Thanks for
Speaker 2: being available here at ten. How are you tonight.
Speaker 3: It's all good and it's great to be back.
Speaker 4: Thanks for having me Dan.
Speaker 2: So, what is the position if there is of a
Speaker 2: triple A on this development? Have you ever had the
Speaker 2: opportunity to take a ride in a autonomous vehicle? No?
Speaker 4: I haven't personally, so I'm one of those folks is
Speaker 4: a little anxious about it, you know, even though the
Speaker 4: numbers tell me that generally speaking, the robo taxis or
Speaker 4: the self driving cards you can ride in today are
Speaker 4: pretty safe.
Speaker 5: Still, there is.
Speaker 4: Something unnerving about not having anybody behind the wheel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a company which I believe is owned by Google.
Speaker 2: It's called Waymou and in a bunch of cities Phoenix,
Speaker 2: La San Francisco, and I think soon Miami and Atlanta,
Speaker 2: and maybe there's a couple more here. You instead of
Speaker 2: calling an uber, you call waymo and go from point
Speaker 2: A to point B. You sit in the back seat.
Speaker 2: There's nobody up front, there's nobody behind the wheel, and
Speaker 2: there's nobody in the front passager seat and it's all
Speaker 2: done remotely. Has has Triple A looked at this or
Speaker 2: is it so small a fleet of cars? Although the
Speaker 2: fleet is growing in all of those three cities as
Speaker 2: I understand it, that Triple A has has yet to
Speaker 2: take a formal position on if this is a good idea.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So we've been following this for a while, and you know,
Speaker 4: we have a pretty open mind about it, and we
Speaker 4: think that there's some value to research and development of
Speaker 4: these technologies because we think it'll bleed into the everyday
Speaker 4: cars we drive and we're already seeing improvements in safety
Speaker 4: and driver assistance systems and cars today, and I think
Speaker 4: some of that is because of some of the research
Speaker 4: down this. We think that self driving vehicles, with the
Speaker 4: right regulations and the right planning and the right investment
Speaker 4: in infrastructure, could be an interesting option to get people
Speaker 4: transported to places safely. But you know, there's a balancing act.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think we're close to cars being sold.
Speaker 2: That was one of the questions I had today that
Speaker 2: we had to work through. The best that I have
Speaker 2: seen is that maybe fifteen years out, the estimates are
Speaker 2: that maybe people would be able to purchase those cars.
Speaker 2: All of us know. I guess that you can in
Speaker 2: most new cars, or certainly cars that are even of
Speaker 2: recent vintage. When you're out on a highway, you can
Speaker 2: set the car at a controlled speed, say sixty or
Speaker 2: sixty five, and the car will not go any faster,
Speaker 2: it won't go any slower unless you apply the brakes.
Speaker 2: So that technology has been around for a long time,
Speaker 2: and I don't know how many people take advantage of that.
Speaker 2: But you got to pay attention. You got to have
Speaker 2: your hand on the wheel, you got to make sure
Speaker 2: the car doesn't drift. So it's one element of self
Speaker 2: driving is that as you understand that, I want to
Speaker 2: make sure I'm not saying something that is technically incorrect.
Speaker 4: Yeah, listeners, you know, without getting into the weeds. There's
Speaker 4: different levels of automation. You know that even the Tesla,
Speaker 4: the autopilot or there their fully self driving mode that
Speaker 4: they call it is only level two and it.
Speaker 3: Goes all the way up to five.
Speaker 4: Five is no human intervention at all whatsoever. Those way
Speaker 4: moos you ride around in are are fully self fully automated.
Speaker 4: But there is somebody, you know, in a on a
Speaker 4: console somewhere who can intervene if need be, because there's
Speaker 4: still you know, chances for them to get stuck or
Speaker 4: get into a predicament.
Speaker 3: On the roadway.
Speaker 4: Uh, and so they have to be kind of manually resolved.
Speaker 2: So yeah, but they don't whoever's on that console doesn't
Speaker 2: have the opportunity if if somebody, let us say, leaps,
Speaker 2: is doing something and wants to hurt themselves, they want
Speaker 2: to leap in front of the weymol you're driving. It's
Speaker 2: conceived and I believe I believe that there have been
Speaker 2: some accidents, Okay, and yeah, it may not be the
Speaker 2: fault of the weymold, but somebody turns the wrong way
Speaker 2: and hits the way mop I would probably think it's
Speaker 2: more likely the driver of the other car that has
Speaker 2: a faulved having driven in one. Oh.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, it was really cool.
Speaker 4: There are crashes involving these vehicles, but the funny thing
Speaker 4: is it's usually humans crashing into them, so they generally
Speaker 4: have a pretty good record as far as causing collisions.
Speaker 4: But you're right, you know, it's it's one of those
Speaker 4: things where when you're mixing the automated vehicles on the
Speaker 4: public roads with human drivers, that's where the real challenge lies.
Speaker 4: Because these the technology is interesting and all, but they
Speaker 4: really have to be on areas that they know they
Speaker 4: operate well. So you can just set them loose in
Speaker 4: downtown Boston, for example. That's not going to work anytime soon.
Speaker 4: And that's the real engineering and technology challenge. How are
Speaker 4: they going to get to that level? And we're still
Speaker 4: quite a few years away from that happening.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and has you know Triple A. Obviously I understand
Speaker 2: what Triple A is as an organization. You have not
Speaker 2: taken a position. I assume that that Triple a is
Speaker 2: not likely to take a position at any point, and
Speaker 2: you're just going to allow the industry to proceed with caution.
Speaker 2: I'm assuming correct.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, we think that there should be safety assessments.
Speaker 4: We think that any pilot or testing should be done
Speaker 4: really thoughtfully. We should. Consumer education is really important so
Speaker 4: people know what's happening and why these vehicles are showing
Speaker 4: up on the roadway. And there's also concern about generating
Speaker 4: personal data and privacy and cybersecurity issues, so we want
Speaker 4: to make sure that there's legislation to make sure that's
Speaker 4: all transparent. Because these are vehicles packed with technology, they
Speaker 4: can gather data, whether it's people in the vehicles or
Speaker 4: you know, the world around them as they're driving. So
Speaker 4: that's important too.
Speaker 2: So amplify on that for me a little bit. You
Speaker 2: probably are more hip to that. What what sort of
Speaker 2: I mean if I'm personally calling a weaymo, what's the
Speaker 2: difference between me calling a weymo and me calling an
Speaker 2: uber or a cab in terms of surrendering personal information?
Speaker 4: Well, you know, I think more about these vehicles out
Speaker 4: on our roadways. You know, that's a really good question.
Speaker 4: That's that's an area I probably should think about more myself.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm looking at you know, what our policy
Speaker 4: stances are, and I think it's it's pretty broad to say,
Speaker 4: you know, privacy and cybersecurity issues. But when we have
Speaker 4: people engaging in a testing program on our public roads
Speaker 4: and in cooperation with the municipality or city, you know,
Speaker 4: we want everything to be fully about board and transparent.
Speaker 4: Similar to any sort of automated enforcement, for example on
Speaker 4: our highways with camera systems, are tolling and that sort
Speaker 4: of thing. We don't want to just sign a blank
Speaker 4: check to a private organization and let them test these
Speaker 4: things out.
Speaker 6: Well.
Speaker 4: We want to know, you know, what data are they
Speaker 4: collecting when they're out there doing this stuff and report
Speaker 4: back so we have a fair and you know, open
Speaker 4: process there.
Speaker 2: Okay, let me ask you one other questions, and that
Speaker 2: is that I know that these again, I think it's
Speaker 2: technically called WAIMO. These vehicles are way called waimo, owned
Speaker 2: by Google operating at this point, I know in Phoenix,
Speaker 2: LA and San Francisco, and they're pretty common. I think
Speaker 2: they're up to about three hundred vehicles at any given
Speaker 2: time that are on the streets of San Francisco. This
Speaker 2: is not like five or six, this is a fleet
Speaker 2: at this point. Do you know off hand? Then I
Speaker 2: keep telling people we don't. We don't go over the
Speaker 2: questions in advanced markets. What comes into my mind? And
Speaker 2: if I ask you a question and it's way out
Speaker 2: of out of your your area of expertise, do you
Speaker 2: know anything about whether or not this type of autonomous
Speaker 2: vehicles are being you are a further down the line
Speaker 2: of being adopted or accepted in other countries, or are
Speaker 2: we leading the way? Do you think?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: They are.
Speaker 4: They are all over the world. I don't have like
Speaker 4: a list in front of me, and I'm not really
Speaker 4: sure that's a good question.
Speaker 5: Are we leading the world?
Speaker 4: We do have some like you mentioned Google, and there's
Speaker 4: been a lot of startups in the United States really
Speaker 4: trying to take the lead on that. One of Nvidia,
Speaker 4: which is a company a lot of folks might be
Speaker 4: thinking about these days because of you know, the stock market.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I know.
Speaker 4: But they're they're hardware, they're they're GPUs, their chips are
Speaker 4: are really vital for these systems because a lot of
Speaker 4: these cars that are driving in the trunk is a
Speaker 4: ton of computer hardware processing everything that's coming into the
Speaker 4: sensors in real time. So Americans are really in this certainly,
Speaker 4: and Las Vegas is another city where they're really pretty common.
Speaker 4: So it's interesting about our survey. You know, even though
Speaker 4: six and ten people say they're afraid of them never
Speaker 4: get into them, that number starts to change when people
Speaker 4: are exposed to them and see them. So if you
Speaker 4: go to Las Vegas, you're a good example, you wrote
Speaker 4: in one and I'm really interested after we talk to
Speaker 4: hear about your experience and whether you feel more comfortable
Speaker 4: with the idea in the future, because I think once
Speaker 4: people are exposed to it, they kind of realize like, okay,
Speaker 4: this is not bad. In controlled environments where they're geo fenced,
Speaker 4: as in, you know, they've mapped this area, they know
Speaker 4: these roads are going to work. It's you can't go
Speaker 4: outside of a certain boundary, you can't get in that
Speaker 4: way MAW and then going across country road trip, that's
Speaker 4: where these systems are really working. The big question is,
Speaker 4: you know, when do we take the leash off? You know,
Speaker 4: and so that is so long ways away, but exposure
Speaker 4: to these things is certainly warming people to them. In general.
Speaker 4: So it's it's certainly interesting, but we're were behind where
Speaker 4: the projections were. As you mentioned, like in the early
Speaker 4: two thousands, the car companies were saying, you know, by
Speaker 4: twenty fifteen, you know, we'll have full self driving anywhere
Speaker 4: you want. Still seems to be that that carrot we
Speaker 4: just can't catch up to quite yet.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Interesting, It just it just is.
Speaker 2: That's that's a perfect metaphor. We're chasing the carrot, and
Speaker 2: it looks as if the carrots getting away from We
Speaker 2: thought we were closer five years ago, Mark, I appreciate
Speaker 2: very much. And there is this survey that Triple A
Speaker 2: did that found Americans are still afraid of self driving vehicles,
Speaker 2: and this came out just a couple of days ago,
Speaker 2: February twenty fifth, twenty twenty five, two days ago. Actually,
Speaker 2: we've grown slightly less wary of self driving vehicles over
Speaker 2: the past year. Just thirteen percent of US drivers indicate
Speaker 2: that feel safe riding in a self driving or autonomous
Speaker 2: vehicle and AV That is up from last year, when
Speaker 2: only nine percent of drivers said that they felt they'd
Speaker 2: be comfortable. Despite the slight increase, six and ten drivers
Speaker 2: still report being afraid to get into a vehicle that
Speaker 2: drives itself. I had no hesitation. I was with my
Speaker 2: daughter and son in law and it was it was fun.
Speaker 2: I mean I was, I was. I was having a
Speaker 2: ball in it.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 2: And I'm not somebody who adjusts easily, anyone who knows
Speaker 2: me to change. I tend to be a little cautious
Speaker 2: when when you're doing something differently. But my daughter said,
Speaker 2: don't worry here it is right here, jump in and okay,
Speaker 2: you know, I kept saying, energy, I can't see the driver, Katie,
Speaker 2: where where's the driver? Playing the role of the dumb dad,
Speaker 2: which my kids will come.
Speaker 4: That's funny because our survey, our survey found that people
Speaker 4: are more inclined to do it if they know someone
Speaker 4: who's ridden one before, or a family member or somebody.
Speaker 3: The numbers jump up.
Speaker 4: So you're you're right into that where you know, you
Speaker 4: had your kids saying, oh, it's fine, we see them all.
Speaker 4: You know, it's this is a thing around here, and
Speaker 4: so you got that initial editation and it is a
Speaker 4: who I've seen videos of people riding them up and
Speaker 4: down the Las Vegas Strip and it's it's like another
Speaker 4: feature or another you know, amenity on your your vacation.
Speaker 8: It's it's like.
Speaker 2: Question, it's another Vegas attraction that in the Elvis Wedding Chapel.
Speaker 4: Yeah, whether I see people commuting to downtown in these anytime,
Speaker 4: So that's a big question Mark. But you know, talking
Speaker 4: to you now, I'm more inclined to maybe get into
Speaker 4: one someday.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think you're Hey, Mark, I appreciate it
Speaker 2: so much. Thank you, very very much. Okay, we'll talk soon.
Speaker 1: My pleasure.
Speaker 4: Dan, great to chat.
Speaker 2: Thanks, Thanks Mark. Okay, we're going to take a break.
Speaker 2: I'd love to know any of you if you've been
Speaker 2: in any of the cities where these are available. I
Speaker 2: just think that this is an interesting topic, something we
Speaker 2: haven't done in our in our seventeen and and a
Speaker 2: half years of Night Side, so we're always trying to
Speaker 2: find different areas. And what I've learned is that there's
Speaker 2: a lot of people in my audience who have different
Speaker 2: levels of expertise. Let me take a quick break here.
Speaker 2: The number six, one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty,
Speaker 2: six one seven, nine, three one ten thirty or triple
Speaker 2: eight nine two, nine, ten thirty, all of those will
Speaker 2: get you in. We're talking about self driving auto autonomous?
Speaker 2: Is that the way I had the pronunciation down early?
Speaker 2: Autononymous vehicles? Self driving vehicles? Have you experienced it? Would
Speaker 2: you trust? Uh? Sitting in the backseat while the car
Speaker 2: drives itself? You just basically tell just like Uber. In Uber,
Speaker 2: you tell the driver, you know, pick me up here,
Speaker 2: I want to get here. Uh. This is the same,
Speaker 2: except it's it's even easier. Back on Nightside after this.
Speaker 9: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 9: night Side Studios, WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's see what people have to say. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: go first off to Joe and Revere. Joe, appreciate your calling. India.
Speaker 2: If you had any experience with a self driving vehicle
Speaker 2: or an autononymous.
Speaker 5: Vehicle, Dan, I wish I could say, yeah, obviously you have,
Speaker 5: but I haven't. I do sell cause and I tell
Speaker 5: CAUs with what they call super cruise. You probably saw
Speaker 5: the commercial on TV to going over a bridge and
Speaker 5: a GMC clapping their hands to clean doing sixty miles
Speaker 5: an hour. I'm sorry, but I'm sixty years old.
Speaker 2: Dan.
Speaker 5: I don't believe in this concept of you not driving
Speaker 5: your vehicle being in control of it, and like, why
Speaker 5: you have to do that, like if you're driving somewhere,
Speaker 5: drop your kids at school, go to work, and be
Speaker 5: in control of your vehicle yourself. I just I'm sorry.
Speaker 5: Maybe you get it so you know more about it
Speaker 5: than me, but I'm just.
Speaker 2: Look, I experienced it. I mean, I was in San
Speaker 2: Francisco and they're very common in San Francisco. You could
Speaker 2: identify them because on the roof of the car they
Speaker 2: had these little devices. It almost looks like, you know,
Speaker 2: a light, but it's not. I think it basically is
Speaker 2: making sure there's nothing around them or they're getting they're
Speaker 2: not getting too close. But hey, it's different strokes for
Speaker 2: different folks. I guess, is what I'm what I'm trying
Speaker 2: to say, and it's it's interesting. I learned a lot
Speaker 2: about them today. We were talking Marita and II, the producer,
Speaker 2: were talking estually. I said, well, we haven't done this,
Speaker 2: and let's give it a shot. Let's see what happens.
Speaker 2: They started they're using they started using them in Phoenix, Arizona,
Speaker 2: which is if you've ever been to Phoenix, it's a
Speaker 2: city that's really laid out with streets going you know,
Speaker 2: horizontally and perpendicularly it's it's a well laid out city,
Speaker 2: unlike Boston. They launched there in twenty twenty and they
Speaker 2: basically have a ninety square mile area in Metro Phoenix
Speaker 2: where they work. San Francisco started in just last August,
Speaker 2: but they have they have a lot of these cars
Speaker 2: now in San Francisco, these Waymo car Waymo cars, La
Speaker 2: a little bit of again ninety square miles, including downtown.
Speaker 2: And they're going to be in Austin, Texas next sometime
Speaker 2: this year, Atlanta, Georgia, uh, Miami next year, Miami, Florida
Speaker 2: next year. And they're also testing I guess Las Vegas
Speaker 2: and San Diego. So they're coming. They're not They're not
Speaker 2: going to get here as quickly as people thought they
Speaker 2: were going to get here. But it it was. It
Speaker 2: had a very safe feel. I mean, to be honest
Speaker 2: with you. You know, you get in a cab with it,
Speaker 2: you get in a car with an Uber driver, you
Speaker 2: get into a cab. Sometimes I've been more nervous with
Speaker 2: cab drivers or drivers than I was in this way
Speaker 2: Moat to be I'm serious.
Speaker 5: I drove a cap for twelve years. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 5: but honestly, I'm surprised, but I haven't done it, and
Speaker 5: you have. You're a man of the world, so you've
Speaker 5: experienced it. To me, personally, I'm totally against anybody but
Speaker 5: a person driving the vehicle, having their foot on the
Speaker 5: break in the gas and being able to break when
Speaker 5: they want to. At some point, AI can mess up.
Speaker 5: Everybody knows that. You could type in dagas set it,
Speaker 5: but I personally am not comfortable or safe. I don't
Speaker 5: even like the super cruise where you're not driving the car,
Speaker 5: somebody at the carriage.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I have Joe, I have a twenty
Speaker 2: thirteen Vovo, and I know that I have that.
Speaker 5: On my page seventy dollars that size.
Speaker 10: Dan a little more eighty eight dollars, okay, which is
Speaker 10: one of the reasons I keep the Voval uh no
Speaker 10: but uh and Vovals Vovo.
Speaker 2: When this car was manufactured, Vovals were great cars. I
Speaker 2: don't believe that Vovos are anything close to what they use.
Speaker 2: The different company owns them and all of that. We'll
Speaker 2: leave that for another time. But I've never used the
Speaker 2: cruise control on my car.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't interest them.
Speaker 2: I have no interest either because I want to be
Speaker 2: able to because there's I'm one of these drivers. I'm
Speaker 2: always assuming that the person in front of me is
Speaker 2: going to do something stupid. I saw a video someone
Speaker 2: sent me yesterday and these two guys.
Speaker 5: That's why I'm surprised when you said you did one
Speaker 5: and you're you're kind of confident because you don't seem
Speaker 5: to me like the type of guy that would be
Speaker 5: for that stuff. But you're all in the world, buddy,
Speaker 5: so you've done it to experience it.
Speaker 2: H Joe. I'll take that as a compliment. Thanks my friend,
Speaker 2: Thanks for calling. Thanks Thanks Joe, talk soon, good night.
Speaker 2: I got some wide open lines. We're going to talk
Speaker 2: to Susan in Belmont next and I have lines open
Speaker 2: at six one seven, two, five, four, ten thirty and
Speaker 2: I have one line at six one seven, nine three
Speaker 2: one ten thirty. If you have been in a way
Speaker 2: Moo or one of these self driving cars, I think
Speaker 2: that's I believe that when they start in Atlanta, there's
Speaker 2: going to be public access via an Uber app, and
Speaker 2: also when they start in Austin, Texas. But for now,
Speaker 2: I believe all the cars are owned by Google and
Speaker 2: the app is called Weaimo, Waymo for these autonomous vehicles
Speaker 2: six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty or six
Speaker 2: one seven, nine three one ten thirty. Coming right back
Speaker 2: on nights Side. We're doing a couple of different topics tonight,
Speaker 2: and I hope that if you're listening, you're willing to
Speaker 2: experiment a lot of my call. My regular callers call
Speaker 2: and they want to talk politics, the same issues, and
Speaker 2: we'll do that, you know that. But I like to
Speaker 2: try to mix in something different every once in a while,
Speaker 2: just a little spice of life. Coming back on Nightside.
Speaker 1: You're on Nightside with Dan Ray on w BEAZ, Boston's
Speaker 1: news radio.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's go to Susan in Belmont, Susan. You were
Speaker 2: next on Nightside. I appreciate you taking the time to
Speaker 2: call in. Welcome. How are you tonight?
Speaker 1: Fine?
Speaker 6: Thank you. I love your show. I listened to it
Speaker 6: all the time. I called once a couple of years ago,
Speaker 6: but I listened all the time.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Nice to have you back.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think this subject is very interesting. I have
Speaker 6: a granddaughter who goes to school in Arizona and the
Speaker 6: Phoenix area, and I said to her one day, I
Speaker 6: want to give you a gift card for Uber a lift.
Speaker 6: Which one do you use? And she said, oh, Graham,
Speaker 6: I we use Waimo And I said, oh, that would
Speaker 6: make me nervous, you know, with no driver. And she said, oh,
Speaker 6: we feel so safe. We always use way more because
Speaker 6: if we're driving coming home from a job or a
Speaker 6: party and or by ourselves, we feel much safer that
Speaker 6: there was. We're not riding with some strange guy. So
Speaker 6: I thought that was an interesting take on it.
Speaker 2: I think it's a great take when you think about it.
Speaker 2: I mean absolutely, there was a story this week about
Speaker 2: against you know, someone else who you know, you know,
Speaker 2: took advantage of some woman who who maybe had had
Speaker 2: some drinks and was unconscious and all of that. You know,
Speaker 2: it's just as yeah, horrible, horrible, what can happen? And
Speaker 2: when I was in how long has your daughter been
Speaker 2: been using this service in Arizona for a while?
Speaker 6: This is this is her second year in college.
Speaker 2: Great, okay, you're going to Arizona State University.
Speaker 6: Yes, yeah, yeah, that's great school.
Speaker 2: It's a really good school.
Speaker 6: By the way, journalistic program.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she'll probably take my job someday, but oh, okay,
Speaker 2: that's okay. No, as U is a great school. They
Speaker 2: get as they are in the top ten. And I
Speaker 2: happen to know this. Of National Merit Scholarship finalists, there's
Speaker 2: only about fifteen thousand students who qualify as National Merit
Speaker 2: Scholarship finalists. And they along with you know, you expect
Speaker 2: Yale and Harvard and Princeton, but University of Arizona and
Speaker 2: the University of Oklahoma, they go out and they really
Speaker 2: induce kids to come out there. I'll bet you she's
Speaker 2: got a pretty a pretty good deal out there to
Speaker 2: go to school from all the way from Massachusetts. They
Speaker 2: look for they look for smart kids. So she's gonna
Speaker 2: do just great. And she's pretty smart to be thinking
Speaker 2: about this as well. Would you if they came to Boston,
Speaker 2: would you try it?
Speaker 6: You know?
Speaker 2: Or would you would you never try that yourself?
Speaker 6: Oh, I think I would try it. I saw them
Speaker 6: out in San Francisco, you know, driving by, and I thought, oh,
Speaker 6: I don't know if I would, but they were there
Speaker 6: were a lot of them out there. I think I
Speaker 6: would try it. I'm not sure I would feel so safe,
Speaker 6: but I guess it's I can understand from a college
Speaker 6: girls point of view, how they particularly.
Speaker 2: At night, particularly at night you're in the car, absolutely
Speaker 2: and you you know you're going to get to your location.
Speaker 2: But I got to tell you, I had no apprehension.
Speaker 2: You know, got in, and it's pretty weird because you
Speaker 2: look at the front seat and you realize no one's there.
Speaker 2: And there's a little statement that tells you, Okay, buckle
Speaker 2: your seat belts. Everybody buckles the seat belt. If you
Speaker 2: don't buckle the seat belt, then the Waymo's not going
Speaker 2: to take you anywhere. And then slowly but surely, you know,
Speaker 2: you could tell that it didn't look. The car doesn't look,
Speaker 2: but it waited for traffic to go by, and then
Speaker 2: slowly but surely it came out of the parking space
Speaker 2: and moved along the floor of traffic and it took
Speaker 2: very easy turns. There was no speed around the corner,
Speaker 2: and it was it was fine. I actually enjoyed it.
Speaker 6: And I'm a very distinctive looking car coming down the
Speaker 6: street too, with that thing on the top of it.
Speaker 2: Whatever. Ye with all the mechanics, the the the electronics
Speaker 2: and the technology. Yeah, anyway, I enjoyed it. I would
Speaker 2: recommend the next time you're out in one of those cities,
Speaker 2: give it a shot.
Speaker 6: Okay, when I go to visit her in Phoenix, I'll
Speaker 6: give it a shot.
Speaker 2: Do me a favorite, tell her that we wish you
Speaker 2: the best of Locke and uh, I'm sure someday she
Speaker 2: will do you proud as a as a journalist. Your granddaughter, Susan,
Speaker 2: thanks so much. You don't wait. Don't waits.
Speaker 6: Tried to call a couple of times. But if your
Speaker 6: line is always busy, well that's a good thing.
Speaker 2: But we'll try to get make sure we get you through. Okay,
Speaker 2: this is a good line.
Speaker 6: Thanks so much. A great, great show, the one you
Speaker 6: called here.
Speaker 2: This is the easier line to get through one. Believe
Speaker 2: it a lot. Everybody has his condition to do. Six one, seven, two, five, four,
Speaker 2: ten thirty. This one, the six one, seven, nine three
Speaker 2: one ten thirty.
Speaker 6: Well, when you started this one on nine three one,
Speaker 6: it was the ladies. Yes, we started that one.
Speaker 2: We did. Yeah. Well, I like my lady callers, Okay,
Speaker 2: I mean I like the guy callers. Don't get me wrong,
Speaker 2: but someone once told me that when I started this,
Speaker 2: that talk radio was the bastion of angry men. And
Speaker 2: I want angry men. I want happy men. I want
Speaker 2: angry women, happy women. Every everything.
Speaker 6: Well, you're doing great job. Thanks a lot, Thank you.
Speaker 2: Susan, appreciate your time and thanks for calling. Good night.
Speaker 2: Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty six one seven,
Speaker 2: nine three one ten thirty. Let me go to John
Speaker 2: in Boston. See what John thinks? Hey John next on
Speaker 2: night Side.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just have a basic question.
Speaker 2: I'm one.
Speaker 3: You know self driving cars are here and you lost
Speaker 3: your license, that you have no license. What's going to
Speaker 3: happen with that? Well, much say you can go out
Speaker 3: and buy a self driving car.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't think we're going to the research that
Speaker 2: I've done, and I've done some research on this today.
Speaker 2: They're not going to be selling these cars probably until
Speaker 2: twenty forty, so you've got to look ahead about fifteen years.
Speaker 2: The self driving way, MOO vehicles, the autonomous vehicles. You
Speaker 2: don't need a driver's license to get into one of
Speaker 2: those because you don't touch you don't touch the steering wheel.
Speaker 2: So this is a great car for if let's say
Speaker 2: you know, you're out late at night and you've had
Speaker 2: a couple of drinks and you don't want to drive home,
Speaker 2: and this is like an uber but without the driver,
Speaker 2: and it's and they're in a bunch of cities now.
Speaker 2: As I said, Phoenix, l A, San Francisco. I experienced
Speaker 2: it in in San Francisco and it was very cool.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think I know you well enough to
Speaker 2: John that that that you would enjoy it. You call
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 7: Often, Well, I might enjoy it, But I'm just wondering
Speaker 7: what's gonna happen when that time comes about having a
Speaker 7: driver's license or no driver's license or What's what.
Speaker 2: You're saying is, yeah, well, well I don't if you're
Speaker 2: gonna buy a vehicle and you're gonna assuming that the
Speaker 2: vehicle is a totally autonomous vehicle, it's it probably won't
Speaker 2: arrive as a totally autonomous vehicle. These cars are totally autonomous.
Speaker 2: There's no driver, No one's the only it's it's all
Speaker 2: done electronically.
Speaker 11: Uh.
Speaker 2: There's a steering wheel. It looks like you were sitting
Speaker 2: in the backseat of a normal car, and the steering
Speaker 2: wheel turns, and the car goes in the direction of
Speaker 2: the steer. The steering wheel turns and and then it
Speaker 2: moves into traffic and it makes a left hand turn,
Speaker 2: it makes a right hand turn. It's it's it's as
Speaker 2: if it's a ghost driving would be the best way
Speaker 2: to describe it.
Speaker 7: Okay, well, that's gonna be a real wake up, a
Speaker 7: freak out with somebody and like a McDonald's drive up
Speaker 7: or breaking drive up and the car pulls up and
Speaker 7: the knowing this seat exactly.
Speaker 2: And again I suspect and I don't know the answer
Speaker 2: to this that if somebody was a wise guy and
Speaker 2: said I'm going to try to climb up onto the
Speaker 2: front seat, I'll bet you that would disable the car
Speaker 2: because they there's no way that they're going to let
Speaker 2: somebody who's you know, half in the bag jump up
Speaker 2: and take control of the car. It's it's run again
Speaker 2: by computers and by somebody probably who's like the equivalent
Speaker 2: of an air traffic controller, who's who's following where the
Speaker 2: car's going and making sure that it's going from point
Speaker 2: A to point B. But in terms of could you
Speaker 2: buy one if you, uh, let's say, had the misfortune
Speaker 2: of having lost your driver's license. It would also be
Speaker 2: good if somebody had enough money. And let's say the
Speaker 2: kids took the keys away. Let's assume they you know,
Speaker 2: the kids said to mom or dad when when they
Speaker 2: got a little on in years. Look, we don't want
Speaker 2: you to have an accident. And that causes a lot
Speaker 2: of aggravation within families right now, you know, because dad
Speaker 2: and mom want to keep driving and the kids are
Speaker 2: concerned about their safety. So if it was fifteen years
Speaker 2: fast forward, they could say, look, we're gonna, you know,
Speaker 2: take your car, We're going to trade it in and
Speaker 2: we're going to get you a Weymo. So they could
Speaker 2: I assume, have a way Mo and just call and
Speaker 2: say to Waimo, look, I want to leave my house
Speaker 2: and I want to go to the supermarket. Take me
Speaker 2: to the supermarket and no one's driving.
Speaker 3: Has any political talk been done about driving license on these.
Speaker 2: I haven't seen any. But I don't think you need
Speaker 2: a driver's license. Now. Again, they may say once you
Speaker 2: own the way Mo, you have to have the wai
Speaker 2: Mo insured, and they might say you got to get
Speaker 2: a driver's license. But when you think about it, the
Speaker 2: people who would I would argue that for elderly people
Speaker 2: who no longer want to drive, particularly elderly folks who
Speaker 2: don't want to drive at night, if if these cars
Speaker 2: became available where they could buy them, uh, and they
Speaker 2: want to maintain their privacy and they don't want to
Speaker 2: be out at night getting ubers and lifts and all this.
Speaker 2: This would be a great option. Park it in your
Speaker 2: own garage. You could park it in your backyard. Just
Speaker 2: a thought. You know. Uh, you raise good issues. I
Speaker 2: have good questions, John, As often.
Speaker 3: Happens, I don't have a suspended license in them more,
Speaker 3: you know, get a way more car and they don't
Speaker 3: need no big.
Speaker 2: Deal, I would assume. So unless there was some you know,
Speaker 2: new law that passes that says that you no longer
Speaker 2: you can't purchase a car if you your license has
Speaker 2: been revoked, or or you you have to have a
Speaker 2: license in order to purchase the vehicle. I'm sure that
Speaker 2: the politicians will come up with something and they'll charge
Speaker 2: you extra if you if you own a WAYMO. But
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's going to happen in my
Speaker 2: lifetime of your lifetime. And it's it's at least fifteen
Speaker 2: years out and it keeps getting pushed out further and further, John,
Speaker 2: I got to get to a break. Thanks, I can
Speaker 2: call Pe'll appreciate it. Good night, got wide open lines here.
Speaker 2: I think it's interesting, though, has anyone out there had
Speaker 2: the experience that I've had with driving away MO riding
Speaker 2: in a way you don't drive away moul You you
Speaker 2: sit in the backseat, and you watch the steering wheel turn,
Speaker 2: and you you are a passenger in an autoymous auto
Speaker 2: anonymous I got I had the pronunciation, and now I've
Speaker 2: lost it again. Auto autonomous rob reminds me of my
Speaker 2: ear auto autonomous vehicle. Uh. And you are simply sitting there.
Speaker 2: The cost of the ride is on your credit card
Speaker 2: or whatever. If you have an app. I assume my
Speaker 2: daughter has an app for this everything else. She is
Speaker 2: an app for everything. I go wide open line six
Speaker 2: one seven, two four ten thirty six one seven nine
Speaker 2: three one ten thirty. What are your thoughts this? This
Speaker 2: will probably be the way people get around twenty years
Speaker 2: from now. I'm sure it's like talking about the arrival
Speaker 2: of Henry Ford's Model T when Hosses ruled the roads.
Speaker 2: Coming back on night side, don't leave me alone, give
Speaker 2: me a call. If this doesn't carry into the next hour,
Speaker 2: we'll come up with a different topic. But I think
Speaker 2: this is a fascinating topic, maybe because I've experienced it
Speaker 2: back on nightside.
Speaker 9: After this, now back to Dan Ray live from the
Speaker 9: Window World Night Side Studios.
Speaker 1: I'm WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Okay, back to the phones. We go. We'll get everybody
Speaker 2: in and if we fall off, we'll we'll move to
Speaker 2: another topic. Let's go to Jerry in Michigan. Hey, Jerry,
Speaker 2: welcome back. How are you?
Speaker 11: Yeah, I'm okay, Dan. My car is made in Germany.
Speaker 11: I don't have a way mo, but my car will
Speaker 11: maintain this distance from the car in front of you.
Speaker 11: When I put it in cruise control, it will adjust
Speaker 11: the speed limits. When the speed limit changes, it'll go
Speaker 11: up or it'll go down. I can change lanes with
Speaker 11: just the turn signal. It'll check for traffic. Make sure
Speaker 11: there's no traffic in the way. It won't it won't
Speaker 11: go if there's traffic, and I can voice command it,
Speaker 11: tell it where I want to go, and it'll go
Speaker 11: There'll it'll maintain the lanes, but I have to keep
Speaker 11: my hands on the wheel. I can take my hands
Speaker 11: off the wheel for fifteen to thirty second something like that,
Speaker 11: and it'll tell me to put my hands back on
Speaker 11: the wheel. And if I fail to do that three times,
Speaker 11: it'll pull over to the side of the road. Stop
Speaker 11: the car and call nine to one one. Really what
Speaker 11: type of money of a BMW No Mercedes?
Speaker 2: Oh okay, okay, good for you, Good for you. Well,
Speaker 2: I got to tell you you, like anything else, if
Speaker 2: you get comfortable with it, I'm sure it's going to
Speaker 2: work for you. Sounds like it's a great idea. It
Speaker 2: probably is a little bit too mechanically complex or technically
Speaker 2: complex for me, because I've got a couple of those
Speaker 2: little items where you could you could go sixty five
Speaker 2: miles an hour in open roads, but I'm I'd rather
Speaker 2: maintain control of the car. But in terms of this
Speaker 2: Weimo and again it's the company, it's not a car.
Speaker 2: It's called a Weaimo, which is it's very still a
Speaker 2: very experimental even in San Francisco.
Speaker 11: Yeah, No, I've seen them. They've come. I live in
Speaker 11: rural I live in a rural lower part of Michigan.
Speaker 11: And uh Google's been by here with their way mos
Speaker 11: and uh they do their mapping. They've got my they've
Speaker 11: got my property. I've got three quarters of a mile
Speaker 11: on the state highway, and they've mau my driveway and
Speaker 11: my whole property up and down and and I'm pretty
Speaker 11: sure that's the same spinning thing you're talking about on
Speaker 11: the roof.
Speaker 2: That cakes exactly. Yeah. What what city are you near
Speaker 2: in southern.
Speaker 11: Michigan, Grailing? I'm I'm east of Grailing.
Speaker 2: Give me a city i'll recognize.
Speaker 11: Gaylor about about Bay City?
Speaker 2: Yeah it was it Wasn't that the home of the
Speaker 2: wrestler Bobo Brazil, I think or something like that.
Speaker 11: If I'm not, I don't know. I'm trying to think
Speaker 11: of the ladies. Madonna was from Bay City. And I'm
Speaker 11: probably an hour and twenty minutes north northeast, north and
Speaker 11: northwest of Bay City. Like I say, I'm in rural,
Speaker 11: rural America.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's great, And thank you for listening to
Speaker 2: us out there. I know I've talked to you before,
Speaker 2: and I hope you'll continue to call and listen.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I've listened all the time. I called you with
Speaker 11: the airplane questions you had when they were scooping water, Yes,
Speaker 11: I told you, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you were absolutely correct. The numbers that that I
Speaker 2: had read, I either read them wrong or they were
Speaker 2: printed wrong. But I did see those planes. They came in,
Speaker 2: they touched down, they picked up, and they just then
Speaker 2: lifted off. Yeah, you described it perfectly thanks to you.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I told you about the trains had been around
Speaker 11: since World War One world War two. They scoop water
Speaker 11: from between the railroad tracks so they don't have to
Speaker 11: stop with the water towers.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Let me tell you you've been a great caller
Speaker 2: every time, so please continue to listen.
Speaker 11: Okay, Well, I love my Mercedes. Like I said, it's
Speaker 11: it's not a way mom, but it it does a lot.
Speaker 11: It's got cameras all around it, and even the cameras
Speaker 11: are on when it's parked. It'll, uh, it'll, it'll text
Speaker 11: me when somebody touches the car.
Speaker 2: Sounds great, sounds great, Jerry. What are your Mercedes by
Speaker 2: the way, bragg.
Speaker 11: On, Oh it's it's the latest model.
Speaker 2: What do you do out there? Are you a farmer?
Speaker 2: You said you've got a lot of land.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I'm a farmer. I got I do cattle, but
Speaker 11: I do most of most of my money I make
Speaker 11: in the stock market. I've been I've been retired for
Speaker 11: I retired when I was forty five, and I've I've
Speaker 11: been done very well.
Speaker 2: You know, Jerry, I'd love to have you become my stockbroker.
Speaker 2: Thanks man, I appreciate the call keep in touch. Okay,
Speaker 2: thank you, thank you. By I'm gonna go to Warren
Speaker 2: and Fall River. Warren, how are you, sir Berry?
Speaker 8: How are you doing?
Speaker 1: Dan?
Speaker 8: No way I would trust being in a driving Okay,
Speaker 8: especially not in Boston.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And by the way, I found out something about
Speaker 2: Fall River the other day that you're going to be
Speaker 2: interested in. Okay, I was listening to Congressman Auchenclass. He
Speaker 2: was with a fellow from the New York Times with
Speaker 2: a long conversation. And do you know that Donald Trump
Speaker 2: carried the city of fall River in the election of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four. He won the city of fall River.
Speaker 8: Really, I did not know that. That's a surprise because
Speaker 8: we're very liberal.
Speaker 2: Well tell that. Here's why it's more of a surprise
Speaker 2: he won. According to Congressman Auchen Class, Donald President Trump
Speaker 2: won the city of fall River, the first time in
Speaker 2: over one hundred years that a Republican presidential candidate carried
Speaker 2: the city of fall River.
Speaker 8: Wow that you know that that's kind of shocking because again,
Speaker 8: it's it's a very very very liberal city.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so well whatever, Like it's just it's a democratic city.
Speaker 2: It's a blue collar city in many respects. Hey, look,
Speaker 2: so you would you would not get into I would not.
Speaker 8: I would not trust it. And my worries is like
Speaker 8: that with technology and AI and the technology and the hackers.
Speaker 8: Like I remember when these things were first introduced, they
Speaker 8: were trying to hack the car and sure enough, you
Speaker 8: know you had you had a couple of hackers that
Speaker 8: would get control of the car and they would right
Speaker 8: it could drive you off a cliffs. So I never
Speaker 8: thought of that. But and what about really bad weather?
Speaker 5: What if you're.
Speaker 8: Driving in like a blizzard, or what what about bike lanes?
Speaker 2: You know you leave.
Speaker 8: Boston.
Speaker 2: That's what makes you a great callie. You've raised all questions.
Speaker 2: It's as simple as that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: Hey, I'm up my break. I got you in before
Speaker 2: the before the eleven o'clock news. I thank you much
Speaker 2: as always.
Speaker 8: Your okay, Okay, thank you, Dan.
Speaker 2: Thank you and talk to you soon. Okay. To those
Speaker 2: are in the line, Glenn and west Roxbury, Martha and
Speaker 2: seakak you guys stay there. You'll start us off. On
Speaker 2: the other side. I'd like to continue this conversation. We
Speaker 2: may get to some open lines in the eleven, but
Speaker 2: let's keep going. Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten,
Speaker 2: thirty six one, seven, nine,