I'm a Woman. I Can't Wait for Autonomous Taxis.
Even though I’m deep in the heart of Tech up here in Seattle, I don’t yet get to benefit from the Autonomous Taxi roll outs by companies like Waymo or Cruise .
These vehicles are already either delighting or terrorizing people in San Francisco, as well as...I honestly didn't expect to see so much of THIS (NSFW), but... there it is!
But they aren’t available yet up here in my neck of the woods. As Bart Simpson would say: “Bummer, dude.”
It’s no secret that tech is widely run by and created by Men. A recent statistic from Zippia made this damning fact even more…..damning.
86.4% of Software Engineers are men.
That leaves…13.6% of these jobs currently being done by women.
As a tech recruiter, my job is talking to software engineers. As an AI recruiter, my job is often talking to software engineers who are creating products from scratch that currently don’t exist.
But we all are stuck in the bubble of our own lived experiences.
So here’s why, as a woman, I am so excited for Autonomous Taxis to roll up and roll out of my driveway.
SAFETY. PERSONAL SAFETY.
Something most men and most software engineers as men don’t often think of as a benefit to being in a car alone.
Here are some statistics:
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Uber received a whopping 3,824 reports of the five most severe categories of sexual assault in 2019-2020.
In October 2021, Lyft released a list of 4,000 recorded sexual assault claims.
In ONE study, from ONE university (San Jose State in California), 63% of the study base reported sexual harassment on public transit.
I’ve been in some really creepy experiences in these situations. Personally. I’ve lied about my destination after being creeped out. I’ve gotten out of a ride early with no warning because I felt unsafe. This is just a reality.
The fact that companies are making cars with no driver makes me safer.
It makes your daughter safer, your sister safer, your mom safter, and your partner safer.
Not only does having a driverless taxi option make women safer, it also makes children safer.
Imagine my son, who is 9, travelling to his cousin’s house across town.
I can put him in a driverless taxi, knowing it will take him to his destination safely and that his Aunt and Uncle will be there when he arrives.
Not only that, I can track his whereabouts on an app from my house, even if I’m in a zoom call.
On behalf of myself, and every other woman, I request that autonomous taxis “Come and GET ME!”
Just...make sure they are cleaned thoroughly first.
Product Lead driving business innovation with MBA expertise | Fintech | Payments | Innovation
1 年Good point Ingrid Johnson
Regional Agency Manager @ Safelite AutoGlass WA & OR | Strategic Problem Solver | Brand Ambassador | Sales Leader | Educator
1 年Spot on Ingrid Johnson . As a business traveler I have had many "concerning" taxi experiences. Once, just outside Dallas, I was traveling late at night to a hotel I stayed in frequently. The taxi driver took the wrong exit and started driving AWAY from my destination and into a rural area. I pointed it out and he assured me I was wrong. Just then, we passed the last building on the road-a hotel. I demanded he drop me off at the hotel and quickly called front desk at the same time letting him know I was talking to them. He dropped me off at that hotel. I will never know what his intentions were, but I felt like I dodged a bullet. BTW, the hotel shuttle driver kindly took me to the hotel I had reservations at.
Voice Actor (EN/FR) | Audiobook Narrator | MC | Zoom / Radio Host | Producer | Sound Guy | AV Tech | Pet Sitter | IT Superhero
1 年Driverless shouldn’t be confounded with ??autonomous ?. Someone is still responsible for what happens from point of embarkation to arrival, it just won’t be the driver that you would otherwise see during the trip.
Female taxi drivers or some other way of providing trust should also be promoted and further explored. Fully autonomous cars seem still many years away to me - living in a small city with a long and (hopefully) snowy winter…. Lillehammer??
Sr. Software Development Engineer @ Amazon Web Services (AWS)
1 年Great take! I hope this becomes a reality for the reasons you brought up. That said, I wouldn’t want my kid to be alone in one of these. There are other risks such as collisions where you definitely wouldn’t want them to be alone.