Indeed. And if you want a lot of people to board the bus efficiently at the same time, you need them to agree to congregate somewhere before the bus arrives. One might call such a meeting point a “bus stop” :)

> you need them to agree

The app would say - meet here.

> One might call such a meeting point a “bus stop” :)

Call it what you want, it could be in a strip mall parking lot, a convenient corner or just in front of the apartment building. Optimized for traveling distance between the passengers.

What’s the point of making this dynamic? Go find a city where people are out, having fun, and not buried in their phones, and where the city isn’t full of strip malls and parking lots. There will be people who want to be picked up during busy hours, and having a shelter from the sun or rain is nice, and having a place where there isn’t a parked car or an uber in the way is nice. Lots of Asian capitals are like this.

> people are out, having fun, and not buried in their phones and where the city isn’t full of strip malls and parking lots.

Are we still talking about how to optimize public transportation on city streets?

I think a bus could stop in the middle of the street, but a bus stop still removes dependence on a smartphone and protects from the weather.

No it couldn't, for legal liability reasons, usability for the travellers, etc...

Taxis/Ubers/... can and do stop in the middle of a street. Why would that be different for a bus picking up a single person?

yes, and it keeps blocking my bus. Fortunately it is now legal in Chicago for drivers to get fined for stopping in bus stops/bus lanes automatically via cameras on the buses. Not sure if it is actually happening though..

What if it's 5 people? 10? What if instead of many huge buses like today it's 5x as many smaller buses?

You can't just have buses stopping randomly everywhere, it doesn't scale.

The assumption is that a "waymo bus" would be hailed by an app and the service would plan routes on demand. In such case, bus stops would be needed only in busy areas or in places where it would be dangerous to stop.

This is based on the observation that people, including police, tolerate taxi drivers stopping at places where it's technically illegal.

funnily enough, they get designated spots and they still just stop in the middle of the street

If you keep asking self driving bros questions you can get them to eventually reinvent buses and trains. It’s fun!