A Waymo driverless taxi is shown driving in Los Angeles, Jan. 13, 2026.Mike Blake/Reuters

Peter D. Norton is associate professor in the Department of Engineering and Society at the University of Virginia. He is the author of Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City and Autonorama: The Illusory Promise of High-Tech Driving.

In Toronto, Mac Bauer races streetcars on foot – and he hasn’t lost yet.

Mr. Bauer isn’t interested in proving how fast he can run. His point is that Toronto’s streetcars are too slow. “I don’t like winning. I really don’t. I really, really wish these streetcars were faster than me,” he told the Guardian. “But they’re not. And this is the problem.”

Slow public transportation is not a problem for everyone. If you’re in the self-driving robotaxi business, slow streetcars and buses are a selling point for your service. Where public transportation is slow, robotaxis can move some people more quickly through the city. It’s an attractive proposition.

But robotaxis are not a cure. Instead, they are a symptom of a condition cities can’t afford to ignore: public transportation systems struggling to serve riders on streets that favour drivers. Waymo, the self-driving ride-hailing service owned by Alphabet, joined Toronto’s lobbyist registry in December, and

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