Regulators are eager for driverless cars—and I might lose a bet

Enlarge / Today, Waymo cars have safety drivers when they're on public streets. But the company envisions a future with no one in the driver's seat. (credit: Waymo)

Waymo made history on Tuesday, announcing that fully driverless cars-with no one sitting behind the wheel-were already roaming public streets near the Phoenix suburb of Chandler. It's happening way earlier than I expected it would.

Back in 2010, I made a bet with the Economist's Ryan Avent. He had an infant daughter and mused on Twitter that she might never need a driver's license since self-driving cars could be commonplace by the time she turned 16 in 2026. I was skeptical. I certainly expected self-driving cars to reach American streets eventually, but I thought it wouldn't happen until after 2026.

So we made a bet. I haven't officially lost the bet yet because the bet focuses on travel from Philadelphia to Washington, DC. But it seems pretty likely that Waymo will expand to the East Coast long before 2026, and I'll have to pay up.

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