I guess by "legacy public transportation systems" you're thinking buses?

GoA 4 trains exist today. GoA 3 is usually more practical and is widely used today. So Waymo would be very late to that and have all the wrong technology stack. But sure, there could be room for the Waymo Driver driving a bus, that may not make as much sense as you imagine but anything is possible.

▲

xnx 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The term hasn't caught on widely, but "vansit" is a term or the midpoint between individual taxis and fixed-route oversized (most of the time) buses: https://www.templetons.com/brad/robocars/future-transit.html

▲

JumpCrisscross 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> there could be room for the Waymo Driver driving a bus

Remove the driver from the equation and modern buses are oversized, particularly in a region with rail transportation.

	▲	laurencerowe 5 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		That depends a lot on where you are. Even with BART running beneath, the 125 capacity articulated buses running every 2 minutes along Mission St in San Francisco are pretty packed at rush hour. For shorter journeys not having to walk as far to, go down into and up from rail stations can make up for the slower speeds.
	▲	asdff 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Get the perfect storm of just three wheelchair users and your standard bus is no longer so oversized seeming.