{"id":8610,"date":"2026-07-20T10:18:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T10:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forbes.co.il\/e\/?p=8610"},"modified":"2026-07-20T10:18:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T10:18:39","slug":"the-ai-habitat-that-waymo-never-built","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forbes.co.il\/e\/the-ai-habitat-that-waymo-never-built\/","title":{"rendered":"The AI “Habitat” That Waymo Never Built"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On July 8, the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sent a letter<\/a> to the autonomous vehicle industry saying that AV developers had shown a \u201cclear pattern\u201d of driverless cars blocking ambulances and fire trucks, ignoring flares and flashing lights, and in some cases driving directly into active emergency scenes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While not technically naming Waymo, it was undeniably a focal player in the robotaxi reckoning – saying there was \u201ca functional insufficiency\u201d among automated vehicle developers regarding \u201ca pattern of interference with first responders\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, a different conversation has been unfolding inside the AI industry. Some of its leading figures have begun looking beyond engineering for answers. Anthropic recently launched its Faith & AI Covenant Roundtable <\/a>to discuss how best to infuse morality and ethics into AI, while OpenAI’s Head of Strategic Futures, Dean Ball, sparked debate after saying he had begun studying the Talmud<\/a> to better understand AI policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Tal Cohen, co-founder of Drive TLV and managing partner of Next Gear Ventures, joined me to discuss these issues. In an interview recorded just after the NHTSA letter, Cohen used Waymo as the clearest example of what he calls \u201cThe Habitat\u201d: the missing institutional layer of trust, permissioning, and accountability that must exist around an AI system before it\u2019s allowed to act with consequential impact in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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