When Everyone’s a Jerk and the Robots Play Nice
I hear self-driving cars are getting pretty good at it. People are saying the trend towards robot cars will not stop. Assuming that’s true, and adoption reaches some critical point, it makes me wonder how this all plays out.
Imagine a future where 40 percent of cars on the road are autonomous. They are not perfect, but they are safe, efficient, and polite. They don't tailgate, they don't cut people off, they don't roll through stop signs, and they certainly do not run red light lights.
That sounds like progress.
Now imagine you are a human driver in the same city traffic. You begin to notice something. These robot cars always yield. They never assert themselves. They pause longer than necessary. They hesitate at merges. They stop when someone even considers stepping into a crosswalk.
If you are like many people with somewhere to be, you might take advantage. And if not you, someone else will for sure. That is where the road dynamics begin to shift.
Game Theory in the Left Lane
This is a textbook case of asymmetric behavior. A mix of predictable agents (the self-driving cars) and opportunistic agents (the humans). The robots are bound by code and caution. They are designed to avoid liability and maximize safety. The humans are bound by very little.
The predictable agent always loses a negotiation. If the robot car will always back off, then the human driver always wins. Whether it is lane changes, intersection merges, or deciding who gets to go first at a four-way stop, the human begins to dominate.
This is not theoretical. Researchers have observed that even a small number of aggressive drivers in a mixed environment can paralyze the flow of traffic. The robot cars, in an effort to be safe, overcompensate. The result is friction. Sometimes, it is gridlock.
Social Codes on the Road
Driving has always been a social game. It is not just about rules. It is about reading intent. We glance at the driver across the intersection. We interpret speed, posture, even the car model. People game each other constantly, often without realizing it.
Self-driving cars don't play that game. They don't make eye contact. They do not bluff. They do not assert dominance. They don't respond to the implicit negotiation that defines daily traffic.
This becomes a problem when humans realize the robot will always defer. Because now, aggression is rewarded. Not punished.
What follows is a two-tier traffic culture. The aggressive drivers move faster. The autonomous cars fall behind. They become the cautious minority in a system that still favors speed and risk.
Automation, But Make It Profitable
This raises a more fundamental question. Was driving really the most important thing to automate?
Self-driving cars are a technological marvel. The companies behind them deserve credit for what they have accomplished. But it is worth asking why this problem attracted billions of dollars and global talent, while other forms of automation have not.
I still take out my own garbage. No robot has offered to do that.
Household tasks, elder care, repetitive manufacturing, food service; these are all ripe for automation. They are labor-intensive, unglamorous, and impactful. But they don't scale like transportation. There is no trillion-dollar garbage robot market. No IPO for autonomous dishwashers on the horizon. And I still insist that our most noble goal with intelligent systems should be to extend life and health in accessible and scaled ways.
We chose to automate driving not because it was urgent, but because it was a platform. A platform for logistics, delivery, fleet optimization, and real-time mobility data. These are powerful economic levers. Taking out the trash (apparently) is not.
What Comes Next
If autonomous vehicles become the minority on the road, they may suffer from their own civility. To compensate, we might see:
New policies or dedicated lanes for AVs
More assertive behavior models built into their software
An attempt to “teach” machines how to be slightly less deferential
Or possibly, a public backlash against aggressive human drivers who exploit the system
Until then, we remain in a transitional moment. A strange era where some cars operate like chess players and others drive like gamblers. One group is ruled by algorithms. The other by impulse.
Personally, I am not against the development of autonomous driving if it saves lives. It holds promise. But I also think we may have prioritized it not because it was hard, or meaningful, or humane, but because it was modelled as being profitable for some key players.
Because I still have to sort my recycling by hand.
And the robot vacuum continues to be defeated by my area rug.