Google is joining Waymo and other tech companies planning to flood the US with autonomous robo-taxis and trucks, putting millions of drivers out of their jobs.
On December 20, 2025 a power outage in San Francisco led to widespread problems for Waymo self-driving cars. The blackout affected about one-third of the city and triggered roughly 1,600 vehicle stoppages lasting over two minutes, with many cars blocking intersections or stopping in the middle of roads because they could not interpret dark traffic signals.
On March 2 Uber and Lyft drivers and Teamsters rallied at San Francisco City Hall and demanded that these autonomous vehicles be taken off the street. Pacifica’s Steve Zeltzer interviewed the workers.
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Fabio Bosco is a retired subway operator in São Paulo, a veteran trade unionist and organizer with the labor federation CSP-CONLUTAS, the Popular Trade Union Center, as well as the PSTU, Partido Socialista dos Trabahadores Unificado, a political party. Here is part 2 of his conversation with Pacifica’s Thomas O’Rourke about Brazilian politics, and many other topics. We share Part 2 of this interview.
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In celebration of Women’s History Month, we share part of an interview with the pianist and composer Donna Weng Friedman conducted by Fahima Seck of WPFW, Pacifica Radio in Washington DC.
Donna Weng Friedman is a Steinway Hall of Fame pianist, producer, filmmaker and creative visionary. She was selected as one of Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals of 2024 for her outstanding contribution to the performing arts.
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We thank all of Pacifica’s sister stations and affiliates who contribute to the production of this show. Today’s program was produced by the Capitalism, Race & Democracy collective, with contributions from Akua Holt, Fahima Seck, Thomas O’Rourke, Steve Zeltzer and Polina Vasiliev
You can find this and all previous episodes at our website “capitalism race and democracy dot ORG”. Make sure you click the subscribe button. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, @PacificaCRD.
Thanks for listening.
Music
“Misanthropic”, written by David Rovics, performed by AI Tsuno
Mc Phellps – Vida de Motoboy ( Video Clipe )
