OPB's It's Been a Week 5/1/26 🏛️🗳️🚗

0:00 You may be able to ride in a self-driving car in Portland soon.

0:02 It's been a week.

0:03 Here's three stories to catch you up.

0:05 A federal appeals court has ruled that officers can use crowd control

0:09 weapons like tear gas outside

0:10 of the ICE facility in Portland without restrictions.

0:13 Two judges previously said weapons could only be

0:15 used in cases of imminent threat of physical harm.

0:18 The ICE building has been the site of multiple

0:20 protests where tear gas was deployed on demonstrators, including children.

0:25 [music] Okay, so if you're registered to vote in Oregon,

0:26 keep an eye out for your primary election ballots,

0:29 and those are going to be sent out to all Oregonians

0:31 in the mail now ahead of the May 19th primary election.

0:34 Well, only people registered with a political party will get

0:37 to vote on partisan races like the Republican primary race for governor,

0:41 all Oregonians can vote on some heated

0:44 issues like the statewide transportation tax referral,

0:47 aka the gas tax increase.

0:51 [music] So, it looks like self-driving cars could be arriving in Portland soon.

0:54 The driverless ride-hailing company Waymo announced it's starting to map out

0:57 the streets in preparation for bringing fully autonomous taxis to the city.

1:01 It's not clear how soon Waymo vehicles could appear in Stumptown,

1:04 especially since Waymo still needs the proper permits,

1:07 and we'll keep you updated as we learn more.

1:11 [music] So, now we want to know, would you ride a Waymo?

1:13 Tell us in the comments.

1:17 [music] Coming back.

1:21 [laughter] Okay.