What Waymo learning New Orleans' streets means for state business

The big picture: Under Gov. Jeff Landry appointee Susan Bourgeois, Louisiana Economic Development has been aggressively seeking new logos to enter the Louisiana market.

• Part of that work was obvious in January when a massive tent took over part of downtown to showcase the state's business opportunities for Super Bowl LIX visitors.
• There were flashy announcements for Meta's new data center and a White House press conference for Hyundai's new steel plant.
• And LED produced a new 40-page plan that amounts to a statewide strengths, weaknesses and opportunities analysis for new business.

Zoom in: Waymo's self-driving cars have been learning the streets around New Orleans for weeks now. The backstory of how they ended up here is an interesting case study for the state's perspective shift.

• About a month after Josh Fleig took the job of chief innovation officer at LED last summer, he reached out directly to Waymo to ask about testing cars here.
• The goal, he said during a recent real estate outlook seminar at UNO, was to figure out what impact the company might have on local rideshare drivers before the cat was already out of the bag.

What he says: "I know that's counterintuitive to say, 'Let me help you displace workers,' but … unless we get involved early with big tech companies trying to figure out these really existential questions, we'll be fully reactive, it'll be too late and the poor will get poorer," he said.

• "That is a very simple hypothesis," he said, "and that's how we want to treat automation."

What's next: Waymo's cars, which do have drivers during the testing phase, will be on local streets for about another month, a rep tells Axios New Orleans.

• It's not yet clear when the company might start offering ride-hailing services.

Go deeper

• What it's like to ride in a Waymo robotaxi
• Scoop: Waymo to send self-driving cars to New Orleans