By Futurist Thomas Frey
The driverless car is no longer science fiction—it’s here, humming quietly in test fleets, edging into city streets, and waiting for regulators to catch up. But while engineers have solved many of the mechanical and digital challenges, society hasn’t even begun to grapple with the social ones.
Here’s a simple but unsettling question: How young is too young to ride alone in a driverless car? Imagine a six-year-old, buckled into a fully autonomous pod at home, ferried ten minutes to school, and greeted by a waiting teacher at the other end. Is that safe? Is it ethical? Is it legal? And if ten minutes seems fine, what about thirty? What about an hour-long commute across town?
We don’t have answers yet—because the rules haven’t been written.
This is just one of many gray zones that self-driving technology is forcing us to confront. Society has always tied age restrictions to responsibility: 16 for a driver’s license, 18 for voting, 21 for alcohol. But what does responsibility mean when no one is actually driving? Is it irresponsible to let a child ride solo, or is it irresponsible not to leverage a technology that might be safer than a distracted human behind the wheel?
And it doesn’t stop with children. Consider another scenario: If there’s no human driver, can a vehicle legally carry alcohol? Could passengers drink openly during their ride? Does “drinking and driving” even exist when no one is at the wheel? The very language of our laws breaks down in a driverless future.
Autonomous vehicles raise questions that blur the lines between parenting, policing, insurance, and freedom. Should cars be programmed to reject rides from minors unless verified by an adult? Should they come equipped with cameras that stream live feeds to parents or guardians? Should lawmakers regulate trip length for unaccompanied children? And what about liability—who’s at fault if something goes wrong when a car is driving itself?
Right now, the technology is racing ahead while policy lags decades behind. We are witnessing the birth of a new transportation culture without any agreed-upon rules. Just as society had to invent traffic lights, driver’s licenses, and DUI laws a century ago, we must now invent the cultural and legal framework for a driverless era.
Because here’s the reality: someone will put a six-year-old in a self-driving car. Someone will stock a driverless vehicle with alcohol. Someone will push these uncharted boundaries. The question is whether we’re ready when it happens—or whether we’ll be caught improvising in the aftermath.
Driverless cars are not just a technical revolution; they are a social one. And until we start drafting the rules, we’re passengers on a road with no signs.
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