Deep Dive: What Happens When Cars Drive Themselves

Autonomous driving reached commercial scale in 2025. The robotaxi market alone is valued at over $11 trillion. But the bigger story is what happens to the industries built around human drivers…

The average American worker spends ~225 hours per year, nearly six full working weeks, commuting. These drivers are physically occupied and cognitively constrained. Autonomous driving can give back these hours, but also protects something even more important. In 2025, there were over 36K traffic fatalities on US roads. Waymo’s peer-reviewed safety data across 170 million driverless miles shows 92% fewer serious crashes or fatal injuries than human drivers in the same conditions. The autonomous driving revolution is removing one of the largest causes of accidental death in America. 2025 was…