Hello and welcome to the Car and Driver podcast. Today we’re diving into Editor-in-Chief Tony Quiroga’s letter on riding as a passenger when nobody’s at the wheel. Imagine climbing into Waymo’s autonomous Jaguar I-Pace in San Francisco. As Quiroga puts it, “riding with an invisible person in the front seat turning the steering wheel is an act of faith.” But that faith comes with surprising perks: no cloying air fresheners, total silence, and zero awkward small talk—“there’s no chance that your Waymo driver is the Zodiac Killer,” he jokes.

Of course, it’s not flawless. Waymos can stall at intersections, get flummoxed by construction, even block freeway entrances. Yet on a recent 15-minute trip, Quiroga found the car smooth, cautious, and consistent—slower off the line, always obeying the rules, but never cursed by distracted behavior. Waymo claims its system is eight times less likely to see an airbag deployment or injury per million miles.

In the end, Quiroga wonders if we should perfect human drivers instead of teaching machines. Either way, the future of the driverless ride is already pulling up to the curb.
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