Best or Worst Week Ever for Self-Driving Cars?, Vegas Blandness, & More
Around the College Towns: Links and commentary related to urbanism and higher ed for the week of June 22 - June 28.
Note: Around the College Town is my weekly links round-up post. I offer commentary on news, posts, or articles from the week, usually focusing on things that fall through the cracks. I am on the last leg of my Asia trip, I just arrived in Japan last night. So things are a little light here this week.
Best or Worst Week Ever for Self-Driving?
Tesla launched their Robotaxis this week in Austin to a lot of fanfare. Tesla is certainly behind its competitors, related to its insistence on using regular sensors in its typical cars rather than specialized versions that are apparent on Waymos. Robotaxis, while limited, have not had major incidents during this launch (though there were minor reports).
At the same time, Waymo expanded into a number of markets and locations, such as car-sprawled Atlanta. Some think that the launch of Tesla shows that the more successful and longer-running Waymo should be valued at over $45 billion.
The launch of new services should be a time to celebrate for self-driving car advocates. But there are signs that things are not going swimmingly for technology in the broader culture.
For one, Elon Musk is incredibly unpopular, and for good reason! His unpopularity also spans both sides of the American political spectrum, with even conservatives disliking him after his messy breakup with Trump. So I worry that his foray into self-driving cars will taint the entire effort.
Further, there is a general bubbling dislike for self-driving vehicles. Urbanists are already pretty divided on self-driving cars, with many firmly against the technology. The recent protests in LA also showed people see Waymo cars as a kind of corporate overlordship.
of recently wrote about these attacks and the deaths of the Waymo cars burnt in the chaos (which I will have some commentary on in a future post).
The Waymos that gave their final rides on the streets of Los Angeles a couple weeks ago weren't just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
By virtue of how Waymos work, they’re basically mobile panopticons. All of the data they record about the built environment is useful for law enforcement and many folks take issue with the fact that the company provides this data to officials upon request. From the perspective of folks marching against ICE, the company is collaborationist.
Passengers in a Waymo were even shot in LA. It does not appear to be related to anti-self-driving cars, and the victims will survive. But it does just add to the negative perceptions this tech has gotten recently.
This topic deserves a much more in-depth article by me. I have one planned for later this year. There are legitimate complaints and concerns about self-driving technology that should be addressed. But I am still optimistic about the direction that the innovation can take the US.
Weird Vegas Dying?
Over on Vegas Reddit, posters were criticizing the recent direction in casino and resort design in the gambling town. “What's with the boring new casinos popping up everywhere? The whole reason people love Vegas is that it’s different from anywhere else in the world!!,” asked the OP of the post.
I myself love the old kitschy and weird Las Vegas. I think the themed hotels and casinos are a classic part of Americana culture. We have gotten a bit too sleek in our design tastes generally, which Paul Skallas LindyMan calls Refinement Culture. In Vegas, I always prefer the older, stranger Fremont Street to the Strip anyway.
A lot of the thread agreed with the blandness trend. But one point I thought was particularly interesting: some mentioned that real Vegas old timers were not always keen on the kitschy themed designs that many of us know and love today.
Didn’t the older neon generation Vegas heads hate the theme hotels when they started popping up because they were causing the “Disneyfication” of Vegas as they started to try to appeal to families? Vegas will forever be stuck in this loop every time it has to reinvent itself for a new era.
This is what I was thinking. Had the internet existed back in the early 90s as it does now everyone would be screeching in outrage over the hyper-themed hotels and the push to market the Strip as a family destination.
“I can’t believe they destroyed the (worn and tired) Dunes and Sands for fake Italy resorts!!” It’s like SNL. Your favorite cast was when you were in high school. Your favorite Vegas era was when you would go in your twenties. This has always been Vegas.
I was in Vegas not too long ago, and I am happy to report that it is still a weird place. Sure, perhaps a few high-profile bland casinos are popping up, but I still found a lot of that Americana kitsch. Plus, the Sphere was just built! It feels very Vegas, at least in the minds of a tourist like myself
Links I’m Reading This Week
Urbanism
LA bus ridership has plummeted. This is worth an exploration by me in the future.
In similar news, LA is already struggling with the logistics of the 2028 Olympics. There isn’t enough budget for the massive new bus fleet.
An old friend of mine who has been a “Digital Nomad” for six years now writes on the realities of the lifestyle.
Everyone is using subtitles when watching TV. Me too! This started when I lived in Korea and I just never stopped.
Education
The president of Waseda University has a message for students and researchers in the US: come to Japan. Hey, I’m here now! I agree. This place is awesome. More Americans should study abroad here.
Houston Community College changes name to Houston City College.
Over a million fake applicants applied to California’s community colleges last year in a bid to scam student aid.
The Pac-12, an American college sports conference, is about to add Texas State University. It’s wild to think of the ascension of Texas State along with the fall of the Pac-12. This stuff has a major impact on education, I promise.
Colleges dominated the most-watched basketball games in the US in 2025.
Around Substack
Note: I also think it’s important to the stay connected to the growing Substack community. Here are a few I am reading this week (sorry, no quotes this week though):
, founder of Strong Towns, has a post (connected to a YouTube video) about the excuse for making large roads to placate giant trucks. I will have a future post on this from my trip in Asia.
Speaking of Strong Towns,
posted a version of a keynote address he gave at the organization’s national conference recently. It is worth a read:
Note: No Finally… section this week. Enjoy the weekend!
Self driving is just like every safety feature, at first it’s a luxury and eventually it’s either mandatory or insurance rates drive behavior to adopt it. Look at the number of cars with adaptive cruise control, lane centering, etc. That’s partial self driving. The next 10 years is going to be eye opening for consumers, insurers, and regulators as Level 3 autonomy rolls out to mid to high end vehicles where the car drives for you 80-90% of the time.
It’s inevitable that generative AI’s “reasoning” and its ability to have literal eyes in the back of its head, never get tired, never text, never drive under the influence, never get old and slow, etc, will surpass 99% of human drivers in our lifetime. It’s just a matter of having enough data to train a big enough trained model and enough processing power, cameras, and sensors on the car.