PJ Vogt

The lamplighter is the electric streetlight.

The third one, driver, has persisted, as a job for some, as a routine human task for nearly everyone else.

This is a story about whether that's about to change.

It's about how the word driver, which right now makes me picture a human, could soon transform to refer to a machine, the same way the words dishwasher, printer, and computer all did.

I've thought about this maybe too much in the year I've been working on this story.

In conversations, constantly, I'd ask the humans the same question.

Are you a good driver?

Do you consider yourself a good driver?

I do, within limits.

I think I'm a good driver because I understand the limitations of my driving.

This is Alex Davies.

He wrote an excellent book called Driven, The Race to Create the Autonomous Car.

Alex, like me, thinks a lot about human driving, about his own personal limitations.

What are the limitations?

The limitations are that I can't always pay attention to everything, that I get tired.

I've been trying really hard to be calmer on the road.

My husband and I are expecting our first baby this fall.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

And I thought that along with like reading all the baby books, a good project to work on is just be calmer in the car.