Riding Together: How Self-Driving Cars Share the Road

One little robot car can pick up your neighbor, then your friend, then you — all in the same ride! This is called ride sharing, and self-driving cars are already doing it in cities like Phoenix, Arizona and San Francisco, California. Instead of one car carrying just one person, a ride-sharing car picks up several riders who are headed the same way. That means fewer cars squeezed onto the street and more room for parks and playgrounds.

In this lesson you will find out how a self-driving car decides who to pick up first, how its computer finds the best path to every rider's home, why sharing a ride helps our planet, and what it means to be a friendly, safe passenger.

A self-driving car has no human holding the wheel, but it does have a computer brain and sensors that see the road. When three riders need a ride, the computer looks at all three homes and figures out the shortest path that visits every single stop without backtracking. The car checks this plan again every few seconds, because a rider might run a little late or a road might get busy with traffic.

If four neighbors each drove their own car to school, that would be four cars on the road at once. If they share one self-driving car instead, a single car does the work of four. Fewer cars on the road means less traffic, cleaner air to breathe, and less space needed just for parking.

When you ride in a shared self-driving car, buckle your seatbelt the moment you sit down, use a quiet voice so the car's microphones can hear if a rider needs help, and always wait until the car has stopped completely before opening the door. A great passenger also keeps backpacks and shoes tidy, so the next rider gets a clean seat too.