I want to hear how you equate "misery and death" with "unloading a passenger in the bike lane for 30 seconds".

I can't tell if you intend this a real analogy or if you are overcome with rage when thinking about motor vehicles

Pulling into the bike lane for 30 seconds causes bikers to have to unsafely pull around the car, possibly causing accidents. In some cities and lanes you may be endangering dozens of bikers during the 30 seconds.

I had to commute by foot for two years into a city, and I have to say I understand the rage. Cars nearly killed me a dozen times and I was always more safe than the law required of me as a pedestrian. Most drivers don’t understand their power with today’s massive cars.

> Waymos pull over into bike lanes all the time for pickups and drop-offs and that’s neither legal nor safe.

While perhaps drop-offs are often relatively quick (though perhaps more risky; see the dooring accident description in the article), I'm also really annoyed by Waymos waiting and blocking for pick-ups, which can be multiple minutes.

I could give you dozens of examples of 30 seconds in a bike lane leading to cyclist life altering injuries and deaths.

Cars pulling into cycling lanes injure and kill cyclists. Simple as.

> I want to hear how you equate "misery and death" with "unloading a passenger in the bike lane for 30 seconds".

I didn't say that.

I'm saying that the toll of traffic violence is unacceptable - tens of thousands of unanticipated and often gruesome fatalities, along with much larger numbers of injuries and traumatic experiences. So we look to autonomous vehicles to be better-behaved - particularly in terms of speed and attention, but also in the little things, like lawful/traditional engagement with lanes for smaller conveyances.

I'm an avid cyclist and I kinda hate bike lanes; I don't blame cars for not knowing how to treat them. I much prefer either a shared lane with a slow pace or a totally separated trail for bikes.

But at the end of the day, the standard for autonomous vehicles isn't parity with the negligence and aggression that cars currently foist upon society, it's much higher.