Anyone want to buy a car that drives itself? | The VergeSkip to main contentThe homepageThe VergeThe Verge logo.The VergeThe Verge logo.TechReviewsScienceEntertainmentAIHamburger Navigation ButtonThe homepageThe VergeThe Verge logo.Hamburger Navigation ButtonNavigation DrawerThe VergeThe Verge logo.Login / Sign UpcloseCloseSearchTechExpandAmazonAppleFacebookGoogleMicrosoftSamsungBusinessCreatorsMobilePolicySecurityTransportationReviewsExpandLaptopsPhonesHeadphonesTabletsSmart HomeSmartwatchesSpeakersDronesScienceExpandSpaceEnergyEnvironmentHealthEntertainmentExpandGamesTV ShowsMoviesAudioAIVerge ShoppingExpandBuying GuidesDealsGift GuidesSee All ShoppingCarsExpandElectric CarsAutonomous CarsRide-sharingScootersOther TransportationFeaturesVideosExpandYouTubeTikTokInstagramPodcastsExpandDecoderThe VergecastVersion HistoryNewslettersExpandThe Verge DailyInstallerVerge DealsNotepadOptimizerRegulatorThe StepbackArchivesStoreSubscribeFacebookThreadsInstagramYoutubeRSSThe VergeThe Verge logo.Anyone want to buy a car that drives itself?Comments DrawerCommentsLoading commentsGetting the conversation ready...TransportationCloseTransportationPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TransportationAutonomous CarsCloseAutonomous CarsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All Autonomous CarsCarsCloseCarsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All CarsAnyone want to buy a car that drives itself?The biggest names in autonomy, from Waymo to Tesla, want to sell privately owned autonomous cars. Who asked for this? by Andrew J. HawkinsCloseAndrew J. HawkinsTransportation editorPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Andrew J. HawkinsDec 3, 2025, 3:00 PM UTCLinkShare Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesTransportationCloseTransportationPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TransportationAutonomous CarsCloseAutonomous CarsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All Autonomous CarsCarsCloseCarsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All CarsAnyone want to buy a car that drives itself?The biggest names in autonomy, from Waymo to Tesla, want to sell privately owned autonomous cars. Who asked for this? by Andrew J. HawkinsCloseAndrew J. HawkinsTransportation editorPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Andrew J. HawkinsDec 3, 2025, 3:00 PM UTCLinkShareAndrew J. HawkinsCloseAndrew J. HawkinsPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Andrew J. Hawkins is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State.Earlier this year, a mysterious new company called Tensor announced itself to the world by claiming it would be the first to sell fully autonomous vehicles to customers at scale. The news didn’t make much of a splash. No one had ever heard of Tensor, so it was the kind of announcement easy to dismiss as vaporware. But the idea was not unfamiliar. In fact, some of the world’s biggest companies are interested in selling driverless cars to individual customers. After all, if you can already hail a fully autonomous vehicle, why not own one too?But it won’t be easy. The technological and legal hurdles are immense. Today’s robotaxis are restricted in where they can travel and under what conditions; it’s unclear whether people would accept similar limitations for a vehicle they owned. And mishaps, like driving through an active police scene as Waymo recently did, becomes even more alarming when it’s a privately owned vehicle.But for the companies investing hundreds of billions of dollars into the technology, it was always inevitable that robotaxis would just be the beginning.Possible vs. practicalFor years, experts dismissed the idea of privately owned autonomous vehicles, arguing that the technology was too expensive for private sales. Instead, fleet-owned robotaxis were the safer bet, helping amortize the costs of all the sensors and high-powered computing — said to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars — needed to enable the cars to drive themselves. But now the costs for much of that equipment, including lidar, is coming down, resurfacing the idea that autonomous vehicles can be cheap enough to sell to regular people.There is a growing list of companies who are champing at the bit to sell fully autonomous vehicles, including Waymo, Tesla, Lucid, and General Motors. Even little players like Tensor, which was spun out from former robotaxi operator AutoX in China, are trying to grab a piece of this undefined market.It may eventually be possible, but would it be practical? An autonomous vehicle has different requirements than a conventional one, with a myriad of sensors that need to be cleaned and calibrated on an almost daily basis. Would the owner be up to the task?Some of the companies are working on self-cleaning sensors. Waymo, for example, has tiny wipers that keep its lidar sensors clean of dirt and debris. Tesla has said it is working on robot vacuums to keep its robotaxi interiors tidy. But neither company has outlined how regular people will be expected to maintain their privately owned robot car — if it ever comes to that.If you can already hail a fully autonomous vehicle, why not own one too?Phil Koopman, an autonomous vehicle expert at Carnegie Mellon University, theorized that privately owned autonomous cars may work similarly to fractional jet ownership, in which you can buy your own jet but still hand it over to a management company that handles maintenance and operational logistics. The idea is that you can “own” a driverless car while outsourcing virtually all responsibility to third-party specialists.“All the sensors have to go through calibration, maybe every day,” Koopman said. “But these sensors are pretty exotic. I doubt that you can just run them for five years with no maintenance.”Another consideration: Most autonomous vehicles are pretty ugly. They require multiple sensors to perceive the world around them, and to serve as backup in case any one fails. The result is a vehicle festooned with a variety of sensors, which can make a vehicle look unattractive, said Omer David Keilaf, CEO of lidar company Innoviz. And aesthetics play a crucial role in the kind of vehicle people tend to purchase.“Ugly cars are not sold,” Keilaf said, “regardless of the features they provide.”This has long been Elon Musk’s beef with lidar. He has argued that the laser sensors are too expensive and too obtrusive to work for personally owned vehicles. Tesla uses a camera-only system for its partially autonomous Level 2 products, including Full Self-Driving, that Musk has promised will eventually lead to fully autonomous vehicles. But that decision has also led to multiple delays in Tesla’s plans to sell autonomous vehicles to its customers.This may be a temporary problem. Keilaf said that next-generation lidar is dramatically smaller and cheaper than earlier versions, which opens new opportunities for discreet mounting locations that don’t disrupt a vehicle’s appearance. Fewer sensors will also be key in making the car more palatable to regular people. Several sensor companies, including Innoviz, are working to reduce the number needed to enable higher levels of automation.How autonomous?If you read between the lines, you can already see how some of the companies pitching this idea of privately owned autonomous vehicles are allowing themselves enough wiggle room, in case the technology doesn’t pan out.For example, both Tensor and Lucid have said they would sell vehicles that are defined as Level 4, meaning they can operate without any human interventions, but only under specific conditions. That could mean certain geographic areas, like places without defined road markings and signs, could be off-limits. It could also mean the vehicle wouldn’t be able to handle certain weather conditions, like a downpour or a blizzard. In those instances, control may need to shift to the human driver.It’s unclear how these limitations will be received by consumers. While Waymo remains popular in the handful of markets in which it operates, and Tesla still has its fans, surveys have found most people remain deeply skeptical of autonomous vehicles. Moreover, advanced driver assistance features are still niche and have yet to go mainstream. It may be that the auto industry is too far out ahead of its own customer base.“Ugly cars are not sold.”This pressure comes from both new US startups, like Waymo, and global competitors, particularly Chinese automakers that are deeply invested in AI-driven vehicles, said Steve Man, global lead director of auto and industrial market research at Bloomberg Intelligence. Automakers typically frame autonomy not only as a commercial competition but as part of a broader geopolitical contest over AI leadership, Man said. They feel like they must invest in autonomy — even without certainty about consumer demand — because being caught behind the curve could eventually put them out of business.Whether people actually want to own a self-driving car seems almost beside the point. After all, car companies have been indulging the idea of privately owned autonomous vehicles for over 50 years. Take this video from 1956, produced by GM, depicting a family of four cruising along in a self-driving, bubble-topped sedan in the wondrous, far-off future of 1976.“Ah, this is the life,” the father says after stowing the steering wheel away. “Safe, cool, comfortable.”This is an idea that has long permeated the mythmaking of the American auto industry, and likely will continue, even if the promise turns out to be more of a fantasy.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Andrew J. HawkinsCloseAndrew J. HawkinsTransportation editorPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Andrew J. HawkinsAutonomous CarsCloseAutonomous CarsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All Autonomous CarsCarsCloseCarsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All CarsElectric CarsCloseElectric CarsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All Electric CarsGMCloseGMPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GMTeslaCloseTeslaPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TeslaTransportationCloseTransportationPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TransportationWaymoCloseWaymoPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All WaymoMost PopularMost PopularOpenAI declares ‘code red’ as Google catches up in AI raceSteam Machine today, Steam Phones tomorrowMKBHD is taking down his wallpaper appSilicon Valley is rallying behind a guy who sucksHBO Max’s Mad Men 4K release is the opposite of a remasterThe Verge DailyA free daily digest of the news that matters most.Email (required)Sign UpBy submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Advertiser Content FromThis is the title for the native adMore in TransportationWhy Honda is suddenly launching reusable rocketsRivian’s software-powered e-bike won me over with its adaptabilityUber’s robotaxi service in UAE now includes fully driverless vehiclesCar influencers love Chinese EVs — and China loves them backRad Power Bikes’ batteries are a fire risk and shouldn’t be used, CPSC warnsTesla’s updated FSD safety data is better, but still flawedWhy Honda is suddenly launching reusable rocketsBrett BerkNov 29Rivian’s software-powered e-bike won me over with its adaptabilityAndrew J. HawkinsNov 28Uber’s robotaxi service in UAE now includes fully driverless vehiclesAndrew J. HawkinsNov 26Car influencers love Chinese EVs — and China loves them backAndrew J. HawkinsNov 25Rad Power Bikes’ batteries are a fire risk and shouldn’t be used, CPSC warnsAndrew J. HawkinsNov 24Tesla’s updated FSD safety data is better, but still flawedAndrew J. HawkinsNov 20Advertiser Content FromThis is the title for the native adTop StoriesDec 2Silicon Valley is rallying behind a guy who sucksTwo hours agoSpotify Wrapped 2025 turns listening into a competitionDec 2HBO Max’s Mad Men 4K release is the opposite of a remasterAn hour agoThis keyboard and trackball combo are for the tinkerersDec 2Steam Machine today, Steam Phones tomorrowDec 2It’s their job to keep AI from destroying everythingThe VergeThe Verge logo.FacebookThreadsInstagramYoutubeRSSContactTip UsCommunity GuidelinesArchivesAboutEthics StatementHow We Rate and Review ProductsCookie SettingsTerms of UsePrivacy NoticeCookie PolicyLicensing FAQAccessibilityPlatform Status© 2025 Vox Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved

The automotive landscape is undergoing a significant shift, driven by the ambition of companies like Waymo, Tesla, Lucid, and General Motors to sell privately owned, fully autonomous vehicles. The core question being asked is: do consumers genuinely desire this, and can it realistically succeed? This pursuit hinges on technological advancements, considerable legal hurdles, and a willingness to accept limitations that might not align with consumers' expectations.

For years, the prevailing wisdom was that fleet-owned robotaxis offered a more viable path, allowing companies to amortize the immense costs – estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars – associated with the sensors, high-powered computing, and sophisticated AI needed for self-driving capabilities. However, as the cost of key components, particularly lidar, has decreased, the idea of selling autonomous vehicles directly to consumers is resurfacing.

Several companies are actively pursuing this strategy, showcasing a competitive environment fueled, in part, by geopolitical factors. Automakers view autonomous technology not just as a commercial venture, but as a critical element in securing leadership in the emerging field of artificial intelligence. This drive is amplified by global competitors, particularly Chinese automakers, who are heavily invested in AI-driven vehicles.

Despite the enthusiasm, practical considerations remain. Owning an autonomous vehicle necessitates a drastically different operational model compared to traditional cars. Sensors require almost daily calibration, and a multitude of specialized systems need maintenance. This raises questions about consumer willingness to engage in such a demanding upkeep routine.

Experts, such as Carnegie Mellon University’s Phil Koopman, theorize that privately owned autonomous cars may resemble fractional jet ownership, providing a solution where consumers can “own” a driverless car while outsourcing all maintenance and operational logistics to specialized third-party providers. This suggests a shift towards a managed service approach.

Beyond functionality, aesthetic concerns play a key role. The sensor-laden design of autonomous vehicles—necessary for perceiving the world around them and serving as backup systems—can create unattractive vehicles. As Tesla’s Elon Musk has argued, the cost and intrusiveness of lidar sensors present a significant challenge to consumer acceptance.

Looking back, the dream of self-driving cars has long been a staple of automotive mythology, as exemplified by General Motors’ 1956 promotional video depicting a family cruising in a futuristic, bubble-topped sedan. However, the reality facing the industry today is far more complex than this optimistic vision.

The pursuit of private ownership of autonomous vehicles is being driven by an intense, global race, and there is a long, uncertain road ahead. The success of this endeavor will hinge not just on technological breakthroughs, but on consumer acceptance, and the ability for companies to navigate a complex legal and logistical landscape.