Isla Campbell takes her first driverless taxi journey across London and spends the entire ride having a low-grade existential crisis
Uber and Wayve have been awarded autonomous taxi licences by Transport for London, and being someone who will try literally anything once if it means avoiding small talk with a stranger, I booked my first driverless ride this week and spent the entire journey having a genuinely low-grade existential crisis in the back seat.
Why I Was Actually So Keen To Try This The Moment It Became Available
Partly genuine curiosity, partly the promise of a taxi journey with zero possibility of being asked where I’m “off to tonight” by a driver who has already clocked I’m going somewhere unremarkable and slightly sad.
What The Actual Experience Of Sitting In A Driverless Car Through London Traffic Felt Like
Unsettlingly smooth, honestly, the car navigating roundabouts and pedestrian crossings with a confidence I don’t even manage on my own two feet most mornings, which was reassuring and deeply unsettling in roughly equal measure.
What Actually Triggered My Specific Existential Wobble Mid-Journey
Watching the empty driver’s seat calmly adjust for a cyclist while I sat there contributing absolutely nothing useful to the journey whatsoever, a realisation that hit considerably harder than I expected somewhere around Elephant and Castle.
Whether I’d Actually Book Another Driverless Journey After This First Experience
Yes, genuinely, though I suspect I’ll need a few more rides before the empty driver’s seat stops making me feel like I’m being quietly, politely replaced by something considerably calmer than me.
What This Whole Ride Revealed About How Quickly London Is Quietly Reshaping Itself Around Technology Most Of Us Haven’t Fully Processed Yet
Mostly that the future arrived in this city with remarkably little fanfare, and that I, personally, am not remotely emotionally prepared for how normal an empty driver’s seat is apparently about to become. More London firsts and minor crises continue at bohiney.com.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com
