In New New York, (flying) cars are still used, but public transportation has been revamped entirely. Instead of subways, people ride around in giant pneumatic tubes built into the city architecture. When Fry tries out the tube system for the first time, the viewer sees that the Statue of Liberty is incorporated into the system; instead of its torch, it now holds up a section of the tubes in its raised hand.
This shot only lasts about two seconds. But according to series co-creator (and “Space Pilot 3000” co-writer) David X. Cohen on the aforementioned commentary, one draft of the script had a longer, more involved joke with Lady Liberty. In the final version of “Space Pilot 3000,” Fry wakes up at Applied Cryogenics, the still-in-operation company where he was frozen. Now, the company is in charge of acclimating cryogenically frozen people to the future. That’s how Fry meets Leela (long before, to the writers’ shock, they fell in love); she’s in charge of processing him.
In an earlier draft, though, Fry was instead sent to Ellis Island for processing (in real life, this is where immigrants would be processed in the 1900s — these days it’s a museum) and had a mishap with the Statue of Liberty (located on the neighboring Liberty Island). Cohen explained, “[Fry fell] out of the head of the Statue of Liberty and the statue moved and caught him. These are all the things you missed, viewers.” Evidently, when the Ellis Island trip was excised from the script, this joke went with it.