The Driverless City

The steering wheel turns by itself, and within a few blocks most riders stop watching it. That is the story of the American robotaxi in the middle of the 2020s: the strangeness wears off faster than anyone expected. One company now reports roughly half a million paid driverless rides a week across more than a dozen metro areas. Heavy trucks with no one at the wheel are hauling freight on Texas interstates. In China, a single operator counts millions of fully driverless rides in a quarter. The Driverless City tells how the driver, the one component nobody questioned, was taken out of the car, and what has to be rebuilt now that he is gone. Traffic law, insurance, city budgets, taxi medallions and long-haul trucking all assumed a person at the wheel. Trace the long race nobody finished, the night in Tempe, the crashes and how to count them, the humans behind the curtain, the camera-only bet, who gets the ticket, what a ride really costs, who is driving and who is riding, and how the street itself may be remade. Written for general readers, with every company claim reported as a claim and every figure sourced, this is a clear-eyed guide to the machine your city will have to govern.