An Investor Says Robotaxis Could Cut a Two-Hour Bus Ride to 20 Minutes
Investor Elana Gold says self-driving cars could give workers without cars faster, cheaper access to jobs farther from home.
This Week in Startups · Why a Do-Nothing Congress could be great for markets | E2359At a Nov. 4, 2026 roundtable of startup investors, the discussion turned to opposition to data centers and fears that artificial intelligence and robots will take jobs.
Elana Gold, an investor who runs Two Roads Capital, a syndicate that backs artificial intelligence, robotics, energy, and other startups, answered by pointing to people who cannot drive or afford a car.
“They're not waiting for a bus that will take them two hours to get to the job site,” she said. “It will take them 20 minutes by going and getting a robo taxi.”
For Gold, that bus comparison was the practical payoff. She said people without cars could suddenly get somewhere much cheaper, and travel farther for less money than before, reaching work that was previously out of range.
She said the United States should not sit back while China and other countries build and move ahead with self-driving cars and robots. As a country, she said, it will have to embrace the technology rather than slow it down at home.
Gold acknowledged the fear behind the resistance, that artificial intelligence and robots will do all the work and leave people with no way to earn money. She said the country is scared of the technology, even though it has the ability to build it.
But she argued that new machines also create new work. She compared the moment to the shift from horses to cars, asked who will build the robots, and pointed to blue collar work she sees growing and becoming more necessary.
Questions people ask
Where can you actually ride in a robotaxi today?
Waymo is the most widely deployed service in the United States, with driverless rides available in parts of Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin. Tesla has begun limited robotaxi testing in Austin, and several Chinese companies operate services in cities in China.
How much does a robotaxi cost compared with a bus or an Uber?
Robotaxi fares are usually priced near regular ride-hailing, often a bit lower than Uber or Lyft in the same city, but well above a bus fare. The savings for a rider without a car come mainly in time, and in reaching jobs that are hard to hold with a long bus commute.
Are robotaxis safer than human drivers?
Public data so far suggests driverless cars have fewer injury crashes per mile than human drivers in the same cities, though comparisons are still limited. They still make mistakes in unusual situations, which is why isolated crashes get heavy attention.