A robotaxi boom is coming. The impacts might be broader than you expect
|San Francisco |6 min read
Urban Economies reflect how their residents get around. And before long, that will start to change—more dramatically than at any time since the automobile was invented over a century ago. The robotaxis now autonomously shuttling passengers around the Bay Area or Los Angeles may look like ordinary cars, perhaps with a few ungainly sensors, but as they spread and develop, they will operate under different constraints to human-driven ones, and accordingly reshape cities.
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This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “The self-driving economy”

From the November 29th 2025 edition
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