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- Waymo Going On Here?
Look, Dad, a ‘29 Waymo
I grew up just outside of Detroit.
The two most controversial things you could do there were cross a picket line or drive a foreign car.
Most of my extended family was, and still is, in the car business.
Some built engines. Some sold them. Some cursed them. All of them had loud opinions about unions, torque and chrome trim.
You either worked for the Big Three $F ( ▼ 0.13% ) $GM ( 0.0% ) $STLA ( ▼ 1.33% ), or you worked against them.
Where I’m from, cars aren’t just vehicles. They’re identity. They're Saturday afternoons in the garage and Sunday drives down Woodward.
So, when I see a Waymo $GOOGL ( ▼ 0.41% ) silently navigate a city street with no driver or growl of an engine, I don’t just see innovation. I see a fork in the road.
Waymo isn’t a car in the traditional sense.
It’s a transportation marvel. An engineering solution. A logistics platform.
It’s innovation on four wheels, and it’s an amazing experience
But we need to be honest with ourselves: driverless cars aren’t going to replace driving. They’re going to live alongside it.
There’s a theory floating around that one day, nobody will need to know how to drive. That software will render the steering wheel obsolete, just like the DVD or the paper map.
But that assumes driving was always about utility. That it was a task to be automated.
For millions of people, it’s not.
Driving is about control. About feeling the road. About building something with your hands, then taking it down back roads just to hear the engine sing.
A Waymo is designed to get you from A to B. And it does that job well. No arguing with GPS, no looking for parking, no Uber small talk. It’s mobility as a service.
It’s driverless, but not really a “car.”
As safe as safe can be
The push toward a driverless future is not without its skeptics. Some argue that the complete replacement of human drivers is a myth.
My daughter, still a few years from driving age, already wants nothing to do with it. Driving makes her anxious, and the growing presence of Waymo vehicles on the streets in our neighborhood gives her comfort and hope.
She might never need to get behind the wheel.
And that comfort may not be misplaced.
Waymo's own research shows its autonomous vehicles have over 80% fewer accidents than human drivers and could potentially save 34,000 U.S. lives annually if they replaced all human-driven cars.
Waymos don’t pop into an afterwork happy hour to drink booze. They don’t text, or get distracted changing the radio station.
But they do rely on a complex system of IoT devices - 29 cameras, 5 lidar sensors, 6 radar sensors, and more - and that introduces new risks: cyber vulnerabilities, software bugs, and edge-case scenarios.
Public trust is another hurdle. Surveys show most people remain hesitant to embrace fully autonomous vehicles, citing safety and reliability. That skepticism suggests that while driverless tech will expand, it won’t erase the human driver.
It’s a Jag!
Waymo isn’t just redefining transportation. It’s redefining Jaguar, too.
The British auto brand, now owned by Tata Motors, is also going through a revolution.
Jaguar is over 100 years old. Known for luxury and sophistication.
And leaking oil.
But today, Jag is going electric. No oil!
With Waymo’s tech inside, the I-PACE model is arguably the most sophisticated vehicle to ever enter the road.
Jaguar’s founder, Sir William Lyons, believed that “A Jaguar should be a copy of nothing.”
Mission accomplished.
Off to the pub, mother!
Our car culture
On a recent episode of Spike Feresten’s Car Radio Podcast, the panel laughed as a rider got stuck in a Waymo. Even customer service couldn’t help. The attorney on the panel, Zuckerman, is my neighbor and always has a beautiful car in his driveway.
Feresten’s show is about cars. Mostly Porsches. Sometimes Jerry Seinfeld. Always stories about why people love to drive and own cars.
Those conversations remind me of the ones I grew up hearing at family get-togethers. The tone is different, but the heart is the same: the shape of the hood, the feel of the turn, the engine's voice.
There must be thousands of classic and muscle car shows held every year in this country. The Detroit and Chicago Auto Shows remain major events. Yes, there’s tech in every new model, but also performance, nostalgia, beauty.
For many, driving is more than transportation. It’s identity, tradition, and joy.
As autonomous vehicles spread, that culture won’t vanish.
It will evolve and grow.
The Takeaway
I seem to be making predictions each week, so here’s another -
We’re heading toward two futures, not one:
A world where you never need to own a car. Or drive one. Where transportation is safe, clean, efficient, and invisible.
And a world where the art of driving becomes more sacred, more niche, and more intentional. And probably more popular. Like owning vinyl records, or cooking with fire.
Both will exist.
The driverless vehicle isn’t the end of driving. It’s just a parallel road.
And me? I’ll take both. Don’t ask me to give up the keys completely.
As for my daughter, maybe someday she’ll never have to white-knuckle a highway merge. And maybe I won’t have to talk her through a stick shift on a hill. (Let’s hope!)
But I’ll always believe that driving, real driving still matters. It’s a life skill, a need. Besides sometimes, the best route isn’t the most efficient. It’s the one you remember.
Stay in Touch
Thanks for reading. If this piece sparked something, or if you’ve got a muscle car in your garage you think I should drive, reach out. You can find me at [email protected] or on LinkedIn.
Good luck on the open road!