Waymo Comes to Town, Fetterman Votes for War & Philly Drinks for America’s 250th

It's the Friday News Roundup. We're talking about Waymo, the driverless taxi, could be picking up passengers later this year, but City Council and ride-shared drivers have some concerns. While we wait for Waymo, how about a $10 bus to get out of town? And if you're sticking around the city this summer, there's cocktails to celebrate the semi-quincennial. And for our members-only segment... I'm getting quizzed on next week's election. It's Friday, May 15th. I'm Trinery and here's what Philly's talking about. Joining me this week at the filler club is CityCast Philly executive producer Matt Catsy Matt. Hey, Tray, I'm looking forward to quizzing you later. I know. It's going to be great. It'll be fine. It'll be fine. And it'll be informative for our members who stick around and listen to that part of the show. Yeah, the reason why I had a little hesitation because I have not a, I don't have a good track record when it comes to trivia on the show. That's true. Listeners, no. Okay. Let's talk about some concerns over driverless cars. Since about August of last year, Waymo, the driverless ride handling service, has been piloting, testing out their autonomous vehicles with operators behind the wheel with hopes to expand in the city by the end of this year. Yeah, they say they could be. riding around without the human operators, like as soon as the fall. Amazing. So you see these things all over now. They're white. They have these black dome things on the roof that house the radar and the sensors and the cameras. And they've been driving around with this person behind the wheel through a permit with the state. And now Waymo says that after the World Cup and after the, you know, 250th America birthday celebrations the summer, they could be driving around with no drivers. But I know what you guys are thinking, because I'm thinking those questions too, and we're going to talk about that. But city council and rideshare drivers like ubers and lifts and taxi drivers, they have concerns, especially when it comes to job security for drivers. For like Uber and Lyft and tech, yes. Rider safety, which is huge. And we'll talk about some of the tech later. And impacts on Philly Streets. You did mention that Waymo has this permit because of like PennDOT, which is the state, but what about our neighborhood streets? Right. So just before there was a hearing this week about this issue, about 100 people held a rally outside of City Hall, urging city leaders to push back on these driverless cars in the city.

And then they did, you know, city council convenes this hearing and they have. So many questions. So many questions for the administration, for the for the mayor Parker administration. And for Waymo, who wasn't there. Did not show up. And they provided written statements. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is kind of like spot on for the driverless vehicle company to send nobody a person. Does anybody work there? Is it just robots running this company? But the thing is, you know, the city council members are asking all these questions, but the city has no authority here, right? I mean, they just don't. I mean, like you mentioned, like the PennDOT, because the state passed this law that allows the deployment of autonomous vehicles, they passed this law back in 2022. I mean, maybe city council is a little too late here. Uh, city council member Rue Landau, she was referencing the, the jobs for Lyft and Uber, which is certainly like a real thing, a real consequence of this. Um, and she was also pretty upset. Like we said, that Waymo didn't send anybody to this, to this hearing. So here's a little clip from council member Landau. They hide behind the non-human response. submitting some paperwork you got all these workers here who might be out of a job who might get cut wages you've got all of us who have very serious questions to ask and Waymo is not here to answer and that is that is shameful and we will try to ask our questions Through other avenues, you and some of the experts we have today. And if we can't get answers, we are absolutely submitting our questions in writing to Waymo. And they need to respond and or we're going to pull them right back here. But going back to your point, Matt, city council doesn't really have power here. I mean, maybe they could consider some sort of tax, additional tax. Oh, did you say tax? Well, the mayor is proposing a ride share tax. on ubers and lifts to fund the school district as well as the like delivery drivers like amazon right right so i mean will that extend to waymo i mean these these are questions that i think city council could explore like they do have some power but not really power to regulate who's driving on the roads that's up to the state right okay so we definitely talked about this last year And you're okay with riding in a driverless car, right? Trinney, not only am I okay with it, I did it two weeks ago. Oh my God, you got to tell me. So we were, you know, we were in L.A. for this family bat mitzvah. And to get back from the bat mitzvah to the hotel. I was going to call an Uber, but I was talking to my 15-year-old niece who said that she takes Waymos everywhere because as a teen girl, she doesn't really feel comfortable with a stranger picking her up, like Uber or Lyft. So she feels much safer and more comfortable in a Waymo. She likes to blast music because you can control the music from the backseat. And I'm like, okay, you know what? Okay.

I asked the kids, you want to do a Waymo? They were super excited. In LA, you're seeing them everywhere. They're all over the place now. So my kids had been talking about it. So my kids who want to do Waymo, I call a Waymo. It was like half the price of the Uber and Lyft back to the hotel. It was so much cheaper. And I always tip Uber and Lyft, and there's nobody to tip in a Waymo. So you save that. money as well. Oh, okay. How about traffic? Because I know like it's kind of like a thing like in LA's culture is a lot of traffic. Right. I felt pretty comfortable. It felt pretty normal. We didn't take any highways. There were two things, two issues. I was like, did you brace? I'm like, hold on to the door handles. In the beginning. But, you know, the novelty of driving around and I was in the passenger seat and sitting next to nobody in the driver's seat and then the steering wheel moving, it was like, it was just pretty cool. Like the novelty of it was definitely an experience. I think my eyes would have been closed the whole time. We get to the hotel and it passes the hotel. It had the address. And it dropped us off like on the other side of an overpass, like a five to ten minute walk away. No. So you can't be like, oh, excuse me, sir, you know, Joe, John, or whatever, your driver. You can't be like, oh, I'm actually, my house is over there. Or you could just drop me off at the corner or something. Like, you can't talk to them. So there's some, you know, kinks to be worked out here. That's a major. So we got out or just walked it. It was fine. But it was definitely a little. You can't say reroute or. There was a button you could like. Tell Waymo, you could call somebody, I guess, or you could go into the app and say there's an issue, but we just got out. We could see the hotel, so we just got out and walked to the hotel. But Matt, let's go back to what you said. If that was your kid in the car, that's true. Got dropped off at the wrong location. That's scary. You know, there was construction by the hotel. Was it confused by that? Maybe that was the thing. The other issue, and this is something that my wife experienced, because she then used a Waymo to take our kids to a shopping center, and there was like traffic getting into the... shopping center and the waymo had to merge you know when there's like already a line of traffic so the waymo's trying to merge but in those situations as a driver you're looking to make eye contact with somebody to let you in or give the little hand signal like yeah come on come on the thing is no one gives a shit about a waymo on the road they look at it as a robot so the drivers are not do not respect the waymo so my wife literally had to roll down the window from the back seat and like who wave at a driver from the backseat, which is kind of like hilarious to like envision the scene. And then a driver then saw her from the backseat in a waymo and let the waymo in.

But the other issue is the Waymo can't read that facial expression. So it took a while for the Waymo to react and realize that there was an open space. Oh my gosh. And then you realize just how often, you know, we communicate. Like non-verbally as drivers with other drivers. Absolutely. Or even someone on like a pedestrian. Totally. Like when I see an older person or a mother with carrying her babies or groceries or whoever. Or someone running to get the septa bus. Oh, for sure. I slow down. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go get your bus. Those are human responses. I can't imagine how Philly would. respond to a waymo wanting to get on to 76. No, if you're getting off 76 by the zoo, you know, that cue. Imagine like trying to get in that. And there's so much, I think, like facial communication in Philly just because the nature of our streets that I could really see that being an issue. My first reaction is this, though, right? With the overall hearing and everything. Technology is going to continue to move at an incredibly fast pace. Far faster than our government can get their heads wrapped around these concepts. Right. And while policy is slower to respond, sometimes we do need time to understand the impacts or the consequences that tech can have on our lives. Yeah, right. But it does seem like the government and our elected officials need to be a little more forward thinking here. I mean, there's a working group that the city is creating. with first responders, so to help them prepare for this. Like if there's a crash or a fire, what happens with a firefighter and a police officer approach the car? Is there a way that they should know about opening the vehicle or stopping the vehicle? Like there's all sorts of emergency situations that a Waymo could be either directly or indirectly involved in. our first responders need some training. But that working group is just now forming. And we could have Waymo's on the road without drivers in three months. So, yeah, we're a little slow to this. Like, quickly if an emergency vehicle is going by. And then, like, you know, I couldn't open the door of the Waymo until I pressed a button on the app. So your phone has to be charged. Your phone has to be charged. But also, like, what happens if a... you know, a cop has to rescue somebody or an EMT has to rescue somebody in a Waymo. How do they open the vehicle? I mean, there's definitely like new questions as it relates to emergency response. I don't have the answers to you, but it does seem like we need to figure out what those questions are. And then if there's training that's necessary, they need to get on that pretty quick. We've got more news after the break.

All right. So we're going to definitely be talking about more transportation issues in the next few weeks, really until August, because we've got a lot of summer festivals and events happening throughout the city. And just getting to the Fittler today. was insane because the traffic was backed up on Kelly Drive because of some lane closures in preparation for the regatta happening this weekend. So I literally was blasting my music and I was like, Trinay, just be patient. You're going to get through this and realize this might be the conditions over the next few months. Yeah, right, especially because the fan fest is over Lemon Hill, which is in that area as well. The Fenfest for the World Cup. The Lemon Hill Fan Fest. Oh, boy. So this week, residents and businesses in Fairmount and Brewery Town have been told you got to get a temporary vehicle parking permit. if they park their cars within this special parking zone near the World Cup fan festival. So we're talking kind of like near the Rodan Museum, kind of around Pennsylvania Avenue and like up to 33rd Street. And this parking zone will go into effect June 11 through. July 19th. The permit is free. Businesses can get up to 10 visitor day passes per business. Residents can get two per household. And if you need a parking permit for like a visitor who's coming to visit you from out of town, you got to go get a permit for them as well. Yeah, and this is to... protect the parking spots for the people who live there. So all the thousands of people that'll be going to the fan fest don't take off the spots for the residents. If you don't have the permit, you can get ticketed or towed, and you know you don't want that. So head over to phillypark.org slash Lemon Hill to apply now. Okay. I have to admit, I don't know everything about everything. I just don't, right? And so I read in Philly Voice that our bus, first of all, I didn't even know that this was a thing. Our bus is an intercity bus company. They're celebrating 10 years. But they've been operating in Philly since 2018. Huh. I just checked on their website. They're offering this like special discount deal right now. So if you leave from Philly and you go to New York, Baltimore, D.C., you don't like to pay like 10 bucks one way. Like 10 bucks or literally 10 bucks? It's like 9.50 depending on what they leave. Like right now. It's like if you were to like book it now. Okay. And round trip is going to be like about $20 something. And the trips have to be within May 23rd to June 10th.

Meanwhile, we're searching for our change under our backseat cushions looking to pay for the gas. We'll be back after this quick break. Before we get into our weekend plans, Matt, the city is truly going to be turned up this summer. Not only are some bars, hotels, and restaurants going to be open until 4 a.m., but more than 30 hotels are serving mocktails and cocktails inspired by the semi-Quincentennial. Visit Philadelphia Launch, Spirit of 76, the Philadelphia Cocktail Trail. They're serving cocktails inspired by Philly's role in the nation's founding. So it's like patriotic drinks. Yeah, I love this. I think it's very patriotic to get hammered on the 250th anniversary of America. And I'll tell you why. The founding fathers were getting drunk while creating this country. There's documentation of this. It's just a historical fact in Philadelphia. There was an amazing article in the Inquirer last year, just like detailing what and where our founding fathers drank. George Washington loved Katie Porter. Ben Franklin wrote a drinker's dictionary with 229 synonyms for drunkenness, including dizzy as a goose. The average colonist at the end of the 18th century drank 3.7 gallons of hard liquor a year. Gallons, hard liquor. There's a bill. from a dinner in 1778 at city tavern over at second of walnut building is still there today there were 270 people at this dinner so it was a big big event that's huge that's like a wedding party wedding party listen to what they had this is what they consumed 522 bottles of madeira wine Plus, 24 bottles of port wine, plus 116 bowls of punch, nine bowls of toddy, six of sangaree, which is like a sangria, two tubs of grog, one gallon of spirits, and then they had to charge a little more for all of the broken glasses, because apparently there were many. That's how drunk this party was. So doesn't surprise me. I think this is, you know, in the DNA of our country. And I love that visifili is, you know, bring this back. What are they going to be serving? So I looked into this. And one of the participating hotels, the Doubled Tree by Hilton, at the Standing O Bar and Bistro on South Broad Street, is serving a Franklin's Spark. What's in that?

Buffalo Trace Bourbon, honey syrup, lemon juice, club soda, and bitters. And there's like a whole story behind this. So in 1752, as a storm rolled over Philadelphia, legend has it that Ben Franklin flew a kite with a key tied to a string. And a spark jumped from the key, proving that lightning was electricity. And so the Franklin Spark is capturing the spirit of that discovery. Nice. Now, there's a mocktail version, which I actually, I like that they're doing cocktails in mocktails. Yeah, yeah. Liberty, lemonade, lemonade, blueberry syrup, and club soda. Oh, yummy. And this is inspired by in 1776 while delegates gathered at Independence Hall. Legend tells of vendors serving lemonade to the crowds waiting outside in the summer heat. Makes sense. And when the declaration had been signed, celebrations erupted. One vendor reportedly added a handful of blueberries to his lemonade, symbolizing the stars that would soon represent a new nation. Wow. I love this. Is this like an organized type of thing? Like you... Try to have a cocktail at each of the locations that are involved in the spirit of 76 Philadelphia cocktail trail? Yeah. So you can learn a little bit more history to check out all the participating hotels and read more stories like the one I read about Franklin's Spark and Liberty Lemonade. Go to visit philly.com. What are you doing this weekend? Well, I'm not watching sports. I know. It's so depressing. Flyers and Sixers both swept in the second round of the playoffs. Their seasons are done. Sixers are in turmoil. President of basketball operations, Darryl Morey was fired this week, which many Philadelphians were happy about. And a lot of questions about what happens with superstar Joel Embed, who can't seem to stay healthy to play enough games to be the centerpiece of the Sixers offense. So where this team... goes in the coming years is anyone's guests and beats. It has a big contracting, paid a lot of money. But I have hope. I have hope in Vijay and Maxi too. So do I. So do I. I have the same naivete that Vijay and Maxi are going to get us to the promised land. You're pulling out these interesting words today. It's like naive. Naivete. I know, but it's just funny. Instead of sports, I may check out the Italian Market Festival on South 9th Street. You're climbing the pole? I'm not, I've also never seen the greased pole climbing contest, but I would, I would love to. The pole, as you know, is slathered in pig lard, and then you have to get, you know, climb up it to get prizes of meats, cheeses, gifts, and money on top. It's an absurd thing, and I do feel like I need to cross that off my Philly experience bucket list. I'm going to a school play. That's like the opposite of the Italian Market Festival, Greece Bowl climate contest. Also, I want to shout out this event happening on Monday. Mark your calendars. Monday, May 18th is International Museum Day. And the Philadelphia Museum of Art is offering free admission all day. This is your chance to see a nation of artists and rising up exhibits. You can also check out the

Art Kids Studio from 10 to 3 and watch a performance from Ballet X from 530 to 630 on the East Terrace. Nice. Before we go, we got some CityCast Philly neighbors. Shout out. Our neighbor, Emily M, wants to recommend a business. And this is what Emily wrote, Murphs Bar in Fishtown for pasta. It's an Irish bar, but they have an Italian chef that makes some of the best pasta and other Italian specialties in the city. You can't go wrong with any of the pastas. And don't sleep on the Arencini if they're on the menu. And also, it's cash only. That is definitely good to know. You can join Emily and become a neighbor. If you want your favorite business to get a shout out, go to membership.citycast.fm.fm. All right, Tray, this is the part of the show where we'll continue our chat for our CityCast-Filly neighbors. If you're not a neighbor, this is the end of the show for you, but it doesn't have to be. Head over to membership.com.com.com to join us and become a member. Comes with a bunch of perks, including the chance to listen to me, Quiz, Triné, this week. Matt, thanks for joining me this week on the Friday News Roundup. Thanks, Tray. Have a great weekend. You too.

I'm That's all for today here on CityCast, Philly. Our executive producer is Matt Katz. Our senior producer is Abby Fritz. Our producer is Matthew Rogers. Our newsletter editor is Siani Colon, and our host is me, Trinay Noray. Music is by Philly's own and Terminable, with additional music from all the kimonos. If you enjoyed this week of episodes and you enjoyed this show, share this with a friend. Also, rate the show, leave us a review, and subscribe to our morning newsletter. We'll be back Monday morning with more news from around the city. Have a great weekend and be safe, y'all. Bye.