San Francisco aims to make shared rides, public transit driverless

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Could city buses in San Francisco be driverless? What about Uber and Lyft? Local leaders, including the mayor, are pushing this vision, trying to get a $50 million grant from the government.

San Francisco is one of seven cities trying to get this grant to get the idea to come true.

Here are some of the ideas from San Francisco transit officials: driverless buses would be connected wirelessly so they don't crash, taxis, Uber and Lyft cars would be driverless and would carry groups of people, and reducing all these care could mean parking garages are converted into affordable housing.

The idea is to shift 10 percent of San Francisco's car use to shared rides or public transit.

But when ABC7 News asked about it Thursday morning, one San Francisco resident worries about the human impact.

"Well, we're going to put everybody out of work. Just too many people, technology is great but you can just take it a little bit too far," San Francisco resident John Zeman said.

Mayor Ed Lee says the $50 million federal grant would be great, but he thinks this idea needs to go forward with or without it.

Ten companies are already testing autonomous vehicles in San Francisco. The thinking is that you'll start seeing these major changes in 3-year phases over the next 10 years.