Freakonomics Radio In a Driverless World, Who Loses and Who Wins?
229 snips
Mar 25, 2026 
Carl Richardson, Massachusetts State House ADA coordinator and blind-access advocate, makes the case for self-driving cars as freedom and mobility. Julia Mejia, Boston city councilor and labor champion, pushes back over threats to low-wage work. They clash over robotaxis, union power, disability rights, city politics, and whether Boston is hearing the right voices.
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Abdi Aziz Joined Uber To Survive The Taxi Collapse
- Abdi Aziz saw Uber as an extinction event for Boston taxis and joined early because he believed resistance was futile.
- Uber gave him a laptop and 200 phones a week to recruit drivers into the very app he thought would kill his old business.
Uber Taught Drivers How Platform Power Turns On Workers
- Abdi Aziz says Uber first lured drivers with generous pay, then used algorithmic pricing and oversupply to squeeze them.
- That pressure pushed drivers toward unionizing just as Waymo appeared, now threatening to eliminate drivers entirely rather than just medallions.
In Blue Cities The Waymo Debate Is Really About Jobs
- PJ Vogt found that in blue cities the autonomous-vehicle fight centers less on safety than on protecting union jobs.
- Boston hearings became a labor rally, with Teamsters and app drivers framing Waymo as a threat to hard-won organizing power.