Transportation

Make Massachusetts a serious deployment partner for autonomous cars, private Tesla Cybercabs, Waymo, accessible autonomous buses, and other qualified operators. Build toward pickup at your home and drop-off at your destination, without requiring a separate walk, drive, or bike ride to a hub. Direct more new transportation investment toward flexible autonomous mobility, charging, and supporting infrastructure. Keep existing transportation safe and reliable during the transition.

Give riders a choice: a private Cybercab with a comfortable cabin for conversations, work calls, family travel, or relaxation; or an autonomous bus for shared trips. Use Tesla's announced Robovan design, with space for up to 20 people, as one model for the buses. Evaluate vehicles as they become available and approved for the proposed service. Measure comfort, cleanliness, safety, reliability, and door-to-door time alongside passenger capacity. 15

Removing the need for a driver in every vehicle could lower operating costs. The job is to turn that potential into lower fares through competition and clear service requirements. Publish same-route, same-time comparisons with human-driven ride services, including fees and any subsidy. Today’s operator prices vary; a cheaper operating model does not automatically mean a cheaper ride. 13 14

Test quality, affordability, and access in a 90-day pilot: door-to-door pickup, your own comfortable space in a private ride, and lower fares. Start with three visible moves: a controlled autonomous express-lane test on I-93; a bounded Seaport street pilot; and an open invitation for mayors and city councilors in Everett, Methuen, and other willing communities to host service. Judge each operator on the system it actually deploys.

Access has to be designed into the service: wheelchair-accessible vehicles, help for riders who need it, phone booking alongside apps, reasonable waits outside the busiest neighborhoods, and safe pickup locations close to home. These are deployment requirements to work toward, not features we assume every current fleet already offers. 13

Invite The Boring Company and competing tunneling firms to design a Massachusetts network for autonomous electric vehicles, with an expansion framework for willing New England states. The long-term ambition is direct, very fast travel between population and employment centers. Plan for Boston, Worcester, Lowell, Springfield, Pittsfield, Fall River, and connecting communities. Cars and autonomous buses should enter and leave through gradual ramps so the network connects directly to ordinary streets.

Begin with a short Boring-style vehicle-tunnel corridor selected through geology, utility, flood, emergency-access, demand, and cost studies. Demonstrate safe speed and passenger throughput before expansion. Explore Hyperloop technology through a separate experimental program, testing its technical feasibility, safety, costs, and passenger experience. A Loop-style vehicle tunnel carries electric vehicles; a low-pressure Hyperloop is a different system whose claimed speeds cannot be applied to ordinary vehicle tunnels. 3

Use municipal and regional airports for drone logistics, medical transport, and passenger-aircraft trials. Invite Springfield-area airports, Worcester, Hanscom, the Cape, and other willing hosts to assess routes with MassDOT Aeronautics, airport operators, and the FAA.

Make Springfield-to-Boston in 15 minutes the research challenge. Start with feasible routes and publish air time separately from ground transfers, boarding, and waits. Passenger operations require suitable aircraft and operating approvals; a cargo-drone trial is not permission to carry people. 4