I don't necessarily agree with it, but it's not inane. It was the government that paid for roads and highways, after all, not Ford or GM.

I feel like I've stumbled into bizarro world. Self driving cars would be a massive boon to quality of life in every American city with perhaps a few exceptions. I couldn't care less if my city spent a billion dollars a year making them work. Way better than that billion going to the current public transit system that sucks out loud.

Many people think that money could be better spent on improving transit so that it no longer sucks.

We tried that about 7 years ago. Zero projects from that tax increase have been delivered and the one actually under construction is mostly pointless.

I am sympathetic that pressing issues need solutions sooner rather than later, and that a lot of public good will was indeed spent on projects that have vanished into thin air with zero accountability. Is it not worth perhaps investing time and energy into fixing the stagnant, shitty processes that have lead to what I will agree (for the sake of good faith argument) are ineffective-at-best shitty decisions and policies? My $0.02: looking to simply abandon civic involvement and completely privatize the solutions?