The writing is always on the wall when aggressive lobbying starts. Here's the situation. A proposed bill has been put forward that would allow autonomous vehicles to operate in Washington, D.C., updating a prior Autonomous Vehicle Act from 2012. Uber is opposing the bill, arguing that it would displace for-hire human drivers and hand Waymo a de facto monopoly in the District, according to TechCrunch.

Instead, the company is lobbying for a system that would require robotaxis, like Waymo, to operate on a ride-hailing network that also uses human drivers. This would give consumers the ability to access both. Do I want to make small talk or not?

Now, Uber's position in the face of autonomous vehicles has always been that human drivers aren't going anywhere because it's simply too expensive to own and operate a fleet of AVs based on peak demand times. The only option is to top up the supply base with human drivers, and this is why the Uber marketplace will always remain essential.

This narrative was initially supported by a series of announced partnerships, but now there seems to be a growing divide between the companies, and it's not so clear that Waymo needs Uber as much as Uber would like. Because if Waymo were truly concerned about having human drivers, then the two companies wouldn't be on opposite sides of the table with this bill. Uber knows this could be existential.

At the end of the day, Uber disrupted traditional taxis and changed how our cities operate. Autonomous vehicles are set to do the same. Should we feel bad? Monopolies are, of course, bad. But creative destruction is not.

Cover photo by Dan Gold

Home is not where you live, but where they understand you. — Christian Morgenstern

One of the things that I like to be annoying about on this blog is the fact that "home" is not a building type. I say this because "home" is often shorthand for ground-oriented, single-family housing. For example, someone might say to me, "Do you think you'll one day buy a home?" And I will be pedantic and say, "But I already own a home."

The words we choose, often because of cultural convention, show our biases. When people associate home with low-rise housing, I can only assume it's because many cities have had a long history of thinking of apartments as disease-breeding tenements. So we oftentimes see low-rise housing as homes, and apartments as something more utilitarian, like a unit.

But in the end, a home is not a building type; it is a psychological state of belonging. It is where comfort, safety, belonging, and identity hopefully all intersect.

One of the interesting things that Bianca and I have both noticed since bringing home our daughter, Vivienne, is that our feeling of home has been heightened. There's additional life within these four walls, and now it is also a place where she is kept safe and protected from the outside world.

I'm not sure if any of you have experienced this, but we both felt it immediately, and it has us saying to each other on a regular basis, "I love our home." And you know what? The view looks pretty great from up here.

I haven't been riding much this summer (I can't wait until Vivienne can join us on our bikes!), but I did go for a bike fit over the weekend — something I've been meaning to do since I basically got my "new" bike.

In case any of you are curious/in the market, I went to Racer Sportif at Bloor & Runnymede. Ask for Dennis and tell him you want to see the photo of him on his first-ever bicycle. The west side of Toronto has such a great road biking culture.

So, it turns out my setup was off. My seat was too low, my seat was too far back, my handlebars were too high, and my stem was about 2 cm too long. These micro-adjustments were all it took for my ride to feel significantly better on the way home.

Of course, these micro adjustments become even more important on long rides because small things do compound over time. I like thinking of things in this way, and it reminds me of one of Sahil Bloom's core philosophies: "Anything above zero compounds."

The smallest positive changes and actions can have an outsized effect when you play the long game.

The same is true for city building. It's easy to focus on big plans and tall towers, but let's not forget the micro adjustments that are being made every day. A new bike lane here, and a new coffee shop there, all have an impact and add up to something more.