6 November 16 - 22, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents the LGBTQ+ community. Lewis, who is bi- sexual, said his 8-year-old “was pretty ada- mant that they were not a girl” from the time they were around 3. Raising a non-binary kid in a deep-red state was a little scary, Lewis said. A teacher once informed his child they weren’t allowed to use the bathroom if they were neither a boy nor a girl, sending them home crying. Lewis soon realized that a teacher or par- ent who didn’t approve of his decision to let his kid explore gender could potentially alert Family Services and spark an investiga- tion: “That was when I started calling every- body, and we all coordinated and said, ‘We need to get out of Texas.’” He’d noticed a shift in tone over the past couple of years “in how people were inter- acting with us” in Texas. White suprema- cists and other extremists were becoming increasingly emboldened, turning up out- side events. Lewis understood that these types of hateful displays sometimes happen in big cities but became alarmed when they started occurring more frequently. And Republicans had ramped up legisla- tive attacks against LGBTQ+ Texans, so much so that the state’s GOP branded ho- mosexuality as an “abnormal lifestyle choice” in its 2022 platform. “They have normalized hateful rhetoric against the queer population as a whole, to the point that it has mobilized the base of extremely violent people who have no prob- lem showing up at a drag show armed and ready to kill,” Lewis said. “I’m not willing to risk my kid with armed Nazis. I’m just not. So, that’s really the crux of it.” Paul Lewis, partner of Ryan Lewis, also trekked up north. (The two coincidentally have the same last name.) Until moving to Michigan in July, Paul had lived in Texas his entire life. Tension hung in the air everywhere Paul went in his former state, he said; by contrast, Pride flags brighten many windows in his new hometown. Michigan leadership re- cently expanded the state’s anti-discrimina- tion law to cover gender identity and sexual orientation. Officials have also worked to at- tract more LGBTQ+ community members to the Great Lakes State. Critics may question their decision to leave, but Paul believes there’s “more than one way” to fight, adding, “I know at the end of the day, when I go to sleep, my family’s happy, they’re fed and they’re safe. That’s all that matters to me.” Ryan echoed that sentiment: The move to Michigan was challenging. It was also worth it. “It was not easy. It was very stressful. It was very expensive. But we are all so much happier,” he said. “You know, my kid is thriv- ing in school and I’m not afraid of their teacher — I’m not afraid of other parents there. “I’m just not afraid.” ▼ TECHNOLOGY A DRIVERLESS FUTURE WILL ROBOTAXIS EVER BE SAFE ENOUGH FOR DALLAS? BY KELLY DEARMORE I f you’re of a certain age and enjoyed school book fairs in the early 1980s there’s a good chance you thumbed through the pages of at least one book with a title along the lines of “Cars of the Future!” The book would be filled with colorful illus- trations (there were no photos of the cars, because the ‘80s were most certainly not “the future”), primarily depicting cars tak- ing flight in a Jetsons sort of way. But driverless vehicles sometimes popped up in those Scholastic books too. And judging by the lack of success of robotaxi provider Cruise, which has halted its Dallas mapping and testing following a number of high-pro- file incidents and problems, the future seems to still be a good way off. On Oct. 26, the GM subsidiary an- nounced that it would immediately suspend its operations throughout Texas, which in- cludes Houston, where tests were under- way, and Austin, where a commercialized service had been running throughout 2023. Over the past few months, the white and or- ange Chevy Bolts, equipped with a camera and sensor equipment on their roofs, have popped up steadily in headlines and on so- cial media feeds for less-than-positive rea- sons. One night in September, a busy Austin in- tersection went viral when more than 20 Cruise cars converged and came to a stop, jamming up traffic all around them. In Octo- ber, federal regulators announced a second investigation into the ability of Cruise’s tech- nology to practice proper caution when oper- ating. Before the end of that month, the California DMV revoked Cruise’s permits to operate driverless vehicles. Last week brought more bad news for the San Francisco-based company. Cruise re- called 950 of its vehicles due to a software glitch connected to the car’s response fol- lowing a crash. That was quickly followed by the announcement of layoffs of staff des- ignated to support the driverless fleet. Cruise began initial testing and mapping in Dallas last May, and now it’s gone. Oh, driverless cab, we hardly knew ye. Over the summer, we were curious about how the Dallas police and emergency services would interact with the autonomous vehicles. How would cops pull over a Cruise robotaxi if some sort of traffic violation occurred? Who would get the citation if there were no driver? Neither the Dallas Police Department nor the city representatives we asked seemed to know the answers to those basic questions when September rolled around. Judging by the recent unfortunate safety and legal developments, it’s fair to say that Cruise isn’t yet ready for the future it prom- ised, but we’re not sure Dallas was ready for that either. Dallas City Council Member Cara Mendelsohn has used her X platform to point out some of the legal troubles Cruise has found itself in recently. As chair of the council’s public safety committee and a member of the its transportation and infra- structure committee, Mendelsohn has a strong set of non-negotiable minimum stan- dards in mind when it comes to autonomous taxi programs in Dallas. “I’m excited for a future that includes au- tonomous vehicles,” Mendelsohn told the Observer. “Today, we need to ensure the safety of the vehicles for the occupants, and surrounding pedestrians, cyclists, motorists and first responders. I don’t think the safety expectations have been met for a rollout in Dallas’ urban core, where we have signifi- cant traffic, pedestrians, construction and special events.” The matter of expectations is arguably the biggest X-factor involved in any discus- sion regarding the future of driverless cab offerings in Big D, or in any other large city. Dr. Stephen Mattingly, a transportation ex- pert and civil engineering professor at Uni- versity of Texas at Arlington, is also hopeful for a driverless future, but he doesn’t think the technology for autonomous vehicles is quite where it needs to be right now for the public to fully accept them. “I love the idea of us being able to come up with functionality and systems that can re- place the human component of driving,” he said. “Because clearly it is one of the most flawed and dangerous components of our transportation systems. But the bar for success is really high because we expect the systems to be flawless, and have you ever come across a computer or sensor that is flawless? No.” Mattingly explained that perhaps more than any sort of improvement in the quality of sensors or lidar (light detection and rang- ing) a vehicle is equipped with, the ability for driverless vehicles to communicate with each other will be a boost for creating a safer, more acceptable operating scenario. “Overcoming the human component of the driving is going to be really difficult for the sensors,” the professor said. “Sensors look at their adjacent environment relatively well, but they struggle to look further away, and when you’re driving in congestion, you’re looking for brake lights way up ahead of you. Sensors on driverless cars can’t do that. Once we have connected vehicles where they’re talking to each other and sharing data, automotive vehicles will be able to function more effectively.” Possible technological advancements are needed, sure, but for municipalities trying to get a grip on this new wave, increased ability to control the product may be needed as well. In 2017, the state made it illegal for cit- ies to regulate driverless vehicles in a move that seemed to foreshadow 2023’s House Bill 2127, aka the “death star bill,” which prohibits cities from passing ordinances that conflict with state law. Along with suggesting a gradual rollout for driverless cars, beginning with Jana Birchum Activist Jonathan Gooch is staying in Texas and fighting for his rights in the capital. Courtesy Cruise Cruise suspended its robotaxi testing in Dallas and Houston in October. Unfair Park from p4 >> p8
