The report is groundbreaking because it makes LA the first U.S. city to specifically address policies around self-driving cars. Autonomous vehicles have logged millions of miles on U.S. streets, but when it comes to aggressively planning for them, American cities are woefully unprepared. A report from the National League of Cities that surveyed the long-term transit plans of 68 large cities showed that only six percent even mentioned self-driving cars. Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Transportation solicited grant proposals from 78 U.S. cities as part of the Smart City Challenge in an effort to get cities thinking about this future.To prove to you that LA is thinking about autonomous vehicles in a different way, consider that this plan was authored by an architect. Ashley Z. Hand was brought on as part of a year-long LADOT fellowship which ended last month (she is currently the co-founder of CityFi, a smart city advisory practice). She says she believes space is the key to solving a lot of LA’s transportation problems.