Working thesis
Physical AI Happens in Cities
Intelligence is leaving the screen and entering the street. Whether embodied AI works will be decided by curbs, loading docks, permits, and data agreements — not by benchmarks.
Thesis read
Designing for a changing world
WILLIAM (BILLY) RIGGSAcademic Leader, Urbanist & Researcher
PhD, UC Berkeley • Professor • Program Director • Researcher
Professor & Program Director, University of San Francisco. Director, Autonomous Vehicles & the City Initiative.
William (Billy) Riggs is a tenured full professor working across urban planning and design, public administration, engineering, and entrepreneurship. He directs the MPA program at USF and its NASPAA accreditation, leads funded research with Waymo, Cruise, the Mineta Transportation Institute, and the City of Oakland, and is the author of End of the Road (Bristol University Press) and editor of Disruptive Transport (Routledge). Previously Principal Planner at UC Berkeley.
Professor · Program DirectorAV&City
$1M+
Research & student support secured at USF
$2.2B
UC Berkeley building portfolio supported as Principal Planner
200+
Presentations & invited engagements
2 + 1
Authored books, plus a forthcoming Cambridge contribution
Core themes
01
Design
Streets, public space, and the built environment as things to be designed, delivered, and operated.
02
Technology
Automated mobility, Physical AI, and civic technology tested against how cities actually work.
03
Institutions
Programs, accreditation, governance, and partnerships that give organizations the capacity to act.
04
Impact
Research carried through to policy, procurement, training, and deployment with public partners.
Writing
Ideas for the Next City
Working theses and published writing on technology, design, and the institutions that decide what actually gets built.
San Francisco Chronicle · 2026
SF is obsessed with Waymo while human drivers are killing people
Autonomous vehicles draw the scrutiny, but the lethal status quo on San Francisco's streets is human driving — an op-ed on where the safety conversation should actually start.
The Driverless Digest · 2026
Uber Wants It Both Ways With Autonomous Vehicles
Uber built its case against car ownership, then repositioned when driverless cars threatened the model — a look at the contradictions in platform strategy as automation arrives.
Essay
The Street Is More Than Infrastructure
The street is the largest public space most cities own. Treated only as a conduit for vehicles, it forfeits its value as commerce, civic life, and access — the argument at the center of End of the Road.
Research theme
Are Cities Ready for Automation?
Readiness is not a procurement question. It is data, staffing, legal authority, curb policy, and the political capacity to run a pilot that might fail — the basis of the Urban CCAM / Physical AI readiness assessment work.
Research & Tools
Five research themes
Funded work with Waymo, Cruise, the Mineta Transportation Institute, and the City of Oakland — automation, curbs, transit, climate investment, and street performance.
R1
Automated mobility & Physical AI
What does it take for automated systems to operate well in real cities?
Rider perceptions of safety and comfort, transit integration, curb allocation, accessibility policy, and the governance of automated services in shared public space.
R2
Computational urbanism & civic technology
What can we learn when cities become measurable at street resolution?
StreetOps and related computational methods for modeling street and curb operations, alongside digital transformation work with public agencies.
R3
Street design & urban operations
How should the street perform as shared civic infrastructure?
One-way to two-way street conversion, street livability, and curb management as an operational discipline rather than a static right-of-way question.
R4
Behavioral economics of sustainable travel
What actually changes how people move?
Social nudges, incentives, and behavioral interventions in travel and energy choices, tested in field and pilot settings.
R5
Climate, equity & community investment
Who benefits when cities invest in climate resilience?
Transformative Climate Communities work with the City of Oakland and the California Strategic Growth Council, and contributions on net-zero and resilient infrastructure.
Signature open framework
StreetOps
An open computational framework for modeling how streets and curbs actually operate: allocation, conflict, throughput, and access. It underpins curb data specification work with automated vehicle operators and street performance analysis with cities.
- Curb allocation and conflict modeling
- Rider experience and transit interaction analysis
- Street configuration and livability measures
Leadership
Universities should be laboratories for the future.
Good institutions do not simply study change — they rehearse it. My leadership approach connects research, teaching, industry, government, entrepreneurship, and place into a single operating model, so that what students learn, what faculty publish, and what cities deploy reinforce one another.
Leadership in depth- 01
Program direction
Professor and program director/chair work at the University of San Francisco, spanning public administration, engineering, management, and entrepreneurship and innovation.
- 02
Accreditation
Leading NASPAA accreditation and self-study, with participation in AACSB, ABET, and WASC processes across professional and technical programs.
- 03
Founding platforms
Founder and director of Autonomous Vehicles & the City, a platform connecting research, policy, training, and consulting on automated mobility.
- 04
Capital projects
Former Principal Planner at UC Berkeley, working with campus leadership on design review, major capital projects, and a multi-billion-dollar building portfolio.
- 05
Partnerships & convening
Faculty governance, conference organization, and external partnerships with cities, industry, and international consortia that outlast any single grant.
Platform · Founded & led by William (Billy) Riggs
Autonomous Vehicles & the City
A platform for research, policy, training and consulting.
AV&City brings together researchers, policymakers, industry leaders, practitioners, and communities to understand how automated mobility and Physical AI can contribute to better cities — not as a technology showcase, but as an honest assessment of what works, what fails, and what cities should require.
Research
Peer-reviewed studies and open evaluation methods
Training
Executive and practitioner programs for public agencies
Policy
Frameworks for state, regional, and municipal governance
Consulting
Deployment strategy for cities, operators, and investors
Books
Long-form work
Authored · Bristol University Press
End of the Road
Reimagining the Street as the Heart of the City
A case for the street as the most valuable public space a city owns, and a practical program for redesigning it around people, commerce, and civic life rather than throughput alone.
Edited volume · Routledge
Disruptive Transport
Driverless Cars, Transport Innovation and the Sustainable City of Tomorrow
An edited collection — edited by William Riggs — on how automation, shared mobility, and new business models reshape travel behavior, land use, and the policy choices cities must make well before the technology fully arrives.
Forthcoming 2026Infrastructure for a Net Zero and Resilient Future in CitiesForthcoming
Contributor · Cambridge University Press
Infrastructure for a Net Zero and Resilient Future in Cities
Contributing author among many
A multi-author volume on decarbonization, adaptation, and the financing and governance models required to deliver resilient urban infrastructure at scale.
Speaking & Media
Talks, commentary, and convening
Recent keynotes in Ghent, Amsterdam, Washington DC, and Los Angeles, plus regular commentary for national and international press.
Recent talks
- 2026 · Invited talk
Automation & the Future of Mobility
VerdeXchange, Los Angeles · June 1
- 2026 · Invited talk
AV Readiness
Alameda County Conference of Mayors, Hayward · May 13
- 2026 · Organizer, moderator & presenter
Autonomous Vehicles & the City Symposium
San Francisco · April 17
- 2026 · Invited talk
10 Years on the Agreement of Amsterdam on Automation
Intertraffic, Amsterdam
- 2026 · Invited talk
Can Connected Automated Vehicles be part of the public transport chain
Intertraffic, Amsterdam
Selected media
De Correspondent
De zelfrijdende auto lost straks al onze verkeersproblemen op (toch?)
Article · Aug 3, 2026
The San Francisco Standard
Waymo keeps blocking SF firefighters, and they're fed up
Article · Jul 10, 2026
Western City
Robotaxis raise complex questions about safety, climate, and transit
Article · Jul 6, 2026
Autonomy Insiders
What Waymo's data reveals about who actually rides robotaxis
Podcast · Jun 9, 2026
California Sun
Professor William Riggs on why we fear Waymos more than bad drivers
Podcast · May 14, 2026
Work With Me
Four ways to collaborate
Selective engagements with universities, public agencies, industry, and foundations.
Academic & Institutional Leadership
Dean, director, and provost-level engagements: interdisciplinary program design, accreditation strategy, faculty governance, research infrastructure, and organizational models that hold together across departments.
Universities, schools, research institutes
Research Partnerships
Co-designed studies with cities, agencies, industry, and international consortia — readiness assessment, pilot evaluation, curb and street operations, and multi-year funded programs.
Agencies, foundations, industry labs
Advisory & Consulting
Strategic counsel on automated mobility, curb and street operations, civic technology deployment, and the policy and procurement frameworks that decide whether a pilot becomes a service.
Cities, operators, investors
Speaking & Executive Education
Keynotes, workshops, and multi-day executive programs for leadership teams navigating technological and institutional change, built around decisions rather than trend reports.
Conferences, boards, leadership teams