The future is coming to New York City, and it may sound like an incessantly beeping car horn.

Waymo, the driverless ride-share service that has experienced notorious viral mishaps — including waking up San Francisco residents when a parking lot full of the cars wouldn’t stop honking at each other —  has launched a test run on the congested streets of Manhattan.

Anyone who has tried to drive cross-town on a weekday knows the unique challenges of our city: delivery bikes ignoring red lights and stop signs, bus lanes that limit where car passengers can be picked up, rim-cracking potholes, jaywalkers emboldened by now having the law on their side. (Cue Dustin Hoffman yelling, “I’m walkin’ here!”)

And then there are the human drivers.

“New York is unlike any other city in the United States,” Jason Kersten, press secretary for the Taxi & Limousine Commission, told The Post. “And people here tend to drive aggressively. It’s a very dynamic environment. That’s one reason why rigorous testing is important. Safety is the top priority.”

Katherine Barna, a spokesperson for Waymo, which is owned by Google parent Alphabet, told The Post that the cars — which are not yet allowed to pick up passengers in NYC — have already endured urban stress tests.

“New York City is certainly one of the most challenging places to drive in the US,” she said. “However, we have a diverse, complex range of driving experiences, including the dynamic streets of Los Angeles and the hilly roads of San Francisco.” (The company also operates in Phoenix, Atlanta and Austin.)

But experts question whether or not Waymos — currently, there are eight of the electric Jaguar I-Pace vehicles on the streets of Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn, each with a human co-pilot In the driver seat — possess the improvisational chops to succeed in the most populous city in the US.

“I was just outside and saw all these vehicles [driven by humans] waiting [to go through a crosswalk] — and they had the right of way. But people just kept jaywalking right in front of them. Eventually the cars’ drivers kind of nudged through. There’s an art form to driving in New York … I can’t imagine a Waymo doing that right now,” one transportation-industry insider, who asked to withhold their name, told The Post.

“The territory of New York is difficult. It’s extremely challenging. There are a lot more potholes. We have inclement weather, which they do not have in Arizona,” said Meera Joshi, the former head of the TLC.

Waymo is apparently working on it. “We currently operate in a handful of cities that receive a few inches of snow annually,” Barna said. “[We] are validating our system to navigate even harsher conditions.”

As far as dealing with first responders, the Washington Post reported on 66 logged incidents in which robotaxis (including Waymos and Cruises, a now-shuttered competitor) interfered with San Francisco Fire Department activity between July of 2022 and 2023 — including driving through yellow emergency tape, blocking firehouse driveways and a Waymo nearly running over a fire hose.

In an undated video posted to Instagram on June 3, a Waymo is seen blocking a San Francisco intersection as a fire engine — siren blaring and lights flashing — tries to get through.

According to Google’s Waymo support page, the cars are “designed to recognize police sirens and lights and will pull over as appropriate.” The Post has also reached out to Waymo for comment.

In Austin this past April, a Waymo stopped in a merging lane of the MoPac Expressway and kept passengers locked inside as other cars whizzed by. According to Fox 7, the city “has been slammed with dozens of complaints about Waymo vehicles stalling, speeding and crashing.”

The Waymo spokesperson claimed that, “During their ride, the passengers in the video pressed the ‘pull over’ button and the vehicle pulled to the side of a 30 mph road with a sidewalk. The riders could have safely exited at any time … .”

Last month, the Detroit News reported on Waymos there “struggling to navigate construction zones.” A spokesperson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Not everything you see on social media provides the full picture — context is very important and there are often a number of possibilities.”

In 2023, one hit and killed a dog, despite there being a human “test driver” in the car.

At the time of the incident, a Waymo spokesperson said. “The initial review confirmed that the system correctly identified the dog, which ran out from behind a parked vehicle, but was not able to avoid contact.”

A Waymo in Arizona was filmed spotted going the wrong way and driving into oncoming traffic in June.

The company said in a statement that the vehicle in that incident had “encountered inconsistent construction signage,” causing it to move into an oncoming lane of traffic.

Still, Joshi — who said we are a long time away from Waymo driving without a human babysitter — admits: “In theory, and in many cases, in practice, [autonomous cars] are safer” than human drivers.

They could even be better equipped than a human driver to stop passengers from “dooring” bike riders.

According to the Waymo website, “When passing cyclists, Waymo vehicles are designed to give at least three feet of space and often more … They also feature an anti-dooring alert system that notifies passengers when a cyclist is approaching before opening the door at drop-off.”

But, unlike Phoenix or Austin, critics say, New York City does not have an inherent need for more ride-shares.

In 2024, according to the TLC, there were around 83,700 for-hire vehicles, include Ubers and Lyfts, in the five boroughs .Of those, 13,587 were medallioned taxis driven by around 200,000 drivers, according to Fernando Mateo, founder and spokesman for the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers.

Since the ride-share business came to the city in 2015, the valuation of medallions has plummeted — a situation worsened for drivers deep into debt with loans.

“[Medallions] went from like $1.2 million to, today, they’re probably close to $100,000,” Mateo told The Post. “A lot of people went bankrupt and a few of the drivers even committed suicide. They had debts on the medallions, which were suddenly worthless.”

Now, there is an irony to all of those Uber and Lyft drivers potentially losing customers to Waymo in the future.

“Over time, that job opportunity will disappear. We’re going to have a void where people need work. We want people to be living and working in New York City. We have to find places for them,” Joshi said, adding that “the need [for Waymo] is not acute here.”

Right now, the NYC test run is scheduled to go through late September, at which point Waymo can apply for an extension. Anything beyond that would require legislation in Albany.

According to Gothamist, city data shows Waymo has spent at least $630,000 lobbying local officials and lawmakers over the past five years.

“It’s one of the biggest mistakes that any of our lawmakers can make,” he said of making Waymo a way of life. “This is about greed.”

In San Francisco, Waymo has now claimed 27% of the ride-share market market, jumping ahead of Lyft and trailing only Uber — despite not always being cheaper.

“It can be significantly more,” said Randol White, who lives in San Francisco and works in public transit. He uses all three services and comparison-shops when booking. Recently, “it was 40 bucks to take a Waymo and $18 for a Lyft. I took the Lyft.”

Barna told The Post that Waymo has “heard from riders that our pricing is reasonable and competitive with the other services.”

And while you’ll still have to hoist your own luggage into the trunk, the Waymo app lets passengers open it as needed — and control temperature and music.

Plus, at least for White, there is one other perk: “You don’t have to make small talk with a driver.”